The patient and the dentist. Trust and consent to treatment

Abstract

Patients’ trust in dentists and patients’ compliance with treatment can improve the outcomes of diseases. The lack of trust
in dentistry and patients’ and parents’ non-compliance may decrease the results of dental treatment and prevention.The aim
of the research was to study patients’ trust in dentists and paedodontists, and patients’ and parents’ compliance with
dentists’ recommendations for them and their children. 1483 adults were questioned, 745 of them were parents of 1-6-yearolds. Visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to measure the patients’ trust in dentists (0 – no trust, 10 – absolute trust).
Questions were aimed at the issue of patients’ adherence to dentists’ recommendations. The mean values with standard
deviations (M±ϭ), frequencies (%) of answers with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Student’s t-test was
used to assess the differences at p-value <0.05.The patients’ trust in dentists was high; the mean mark was 8.13±1.23
according to VAS. However, only about a half of the patients were ready to follow the treatment plan (49.1%, CI 46.6%-
51.6%); to go for additional examinations (23.7%, CI 21.5%-25.9%); to change their life-styles in accordance with
preventive recommendations (29.2%, CI 26.9%-31.5%). Every fourth (24.5%, CI 22.3%-26.7%) adult continued to brush
teeth once a day. The majority (97.2%, CI 96.4%-98.0%) of the parents declared their trust in pedodontists. However, only
70.7% (CI 67.4%-74.0%) parents agreed with the dental treatment plan for their children, 21.3% (CI 18.4%-24.2%)
implemented all recommendations. The parents preferred to follow one-two recommendations for their children: tooth
brushing twice a day (41.9%, CI 38.4%-45.4%), restricting sweets consumption (36.4%, CI 32.9%-39.9%), using fluorides
(43.5%, CI 39.9%-47.1%), or visiting a dentist for prevention (61.3%, CI 57.8%-64.8%). The adults declared high level of
trust in dentists and pedodontists; however, their compliance with the dental treatment plan and implementation of
preventive recommendations for them and their children were significantly lower