Patient participation during dental consultations: the influence of patients' characteristics and dentists' behavior.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined the influence of the following variables on patients' information-seeking and participating behavior during emergency treatment: patients' preferences for information and participation, patients' coping style, patients' socio-demographic variables, and dentists' communicative behavior.


METHODS
The sample consisted of 83 patients receiving emergency care from 13 different dentists. Consultations were videotaped in order to assess dentists' and patients' behavior. Dentists' communicative behavior was coded by means of the Communication in Dental Settings Scale (CDSS); scores for patients' behavior included the number and nature of questions asked during the consultation, attempts to offer diagnoses, and whether or not patients made the decision to undergo treatment themselves. At home, patients filled out a questionnaire that included scales to measure their preference for information and participation and other background variables.


RESULTS
Results showed that patients' desire for information and participation, together with other variables, was not reflected in their overt behavior. Furthermore, dentists' communicative behavior was unrelated to patients' information-seeking and participating behavior.


CONCLUSIONS
Scores on the CDSS show that still there is a discrepancy between the legal prerequisites of information-giving and emergency dental practice. Therefore, dentists' information-giving behavior should be improved in order to enhance the patients' right to make informed decisions.
Schouten
Barbara C
BC
Academic Centre of Dentistry Amsterdam, Department of Social Dentistry, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. b.schouten@acta.nl
Hoogstraten
Johan
J
Eijkman
Michiel A J
MA
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003142:Communication; D003657:Decision Making; D003729:Dental Care; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D004638:Emergency Treatment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010358:Patient Participation; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014743:Videotape Recording