the Correlation between Knowledge and Loyalty of the Orthodontic Patients

Orthodontics treatment needs longer treatment time than any other treatment in dentistry. Therefore, there must be a complete understanding between the dentist and patient during the entire course of treatment. By giving careful explanations, dentist cultivates patient's confidence and brings him further into loyalty. Objectives: This research aims at finding out whether there is a relationship between the patient's knowledge of orthodontics and patient's loyalty toward the orthodontics treatment. Methods: This research was conducted at Trisakti Dental Hospital in 136 patients by using questionnaires in “Likert scale”. The collected data was then assessed statistically with Pearson Product Moment Correlation test using software SPSS. The questionnaire was divided into two stages. The first questionnaire was dedicated to the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Results: Based on the validity test, out of the 50 questions related to loyalty, there are 40 valid questions with the validity value between 0.385 and 0.818. The reliability test got the alpha value α of 0.948, suggesting that the questionnaire is reliable. The second questionnaire aimed at finding out the correlation. Conclusion: There is a significant relationship between knowledge and loyalty of patients, with Pearson correlation value 0.410 (p<0.01) which means higher patient knowledge about the treatment correlates well with patient's loyalty of the treatment.