A general dental practice research network: impact of oral health in general dental practice patients.
OBJECTIVE
To measure the subjective impact of oral health in a group of patients attending general dental practices in the North West of England and to investigate the attributes of dentists and practices in order to examine how such attributes might relate to patients' subjective perceptions of oral health.


METHODS
Fifteen general dental practices conducting a simultaneous survey of attending patients and 15 practitioners from these practices providing information about their attitudes to treatment, prevention and various aspects of their surgery.


METHODS
General dental


METHODS
Patient subjective impact scores. Relationships between practice and practitioner variables and patients' subjectively perceived oral health.


RESULTS
Fifteen practitioners with diverse practice attributes provided data on 718 patients. The mean total oral health impact score was 18.4. Twenty two per cent of patients had experienced pain in the four weeks before the survey and 11% had been unable to chew some foods. Fifty five per cent of the surveyed population had, in the previous year, worried about the appearance of their mouth and 65% had worried about their oral health in general. Dentists' beliefs were related to patient impact scores but practice attributes were not significantly associated with patients' impacts.


CONCLUSIONS
Fourteen percent of the differences in patients' subjectively perceived oral health can be attributed to dentist attitudes and attributes. Further research regarding the influence of dentists personality and professional beliefs on patients well-being needs to be undertaken.
Kay
E J
EJ
Dental Health Services Research, University of Manchester Dental Hospital and School, Higher Cambridge Street, Manchester M5 6FH. e.kay@man.ac.uk
Ward
N
N
Locker
D
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003729:Dental Care; D018865:Dental Research; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D004739:England; D004955:Esthetics, Dental; D005792:General Practice, Dental; D006801:Humans; D008409:Mastication; D008875:Middle Aged; D009909:Oral Health; D011313:Preventive Dentistry; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014076:Tooth Diseases / Q000523:psychology