Parents' satisfaction with their child's orthodontic care: a comparison of orthodontists and pediatric dentists.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of orthodontic care between orthodontists and pediatric dentists when measured by parental satisfaction.


METHODS
Six pediatric dentists and 5 orthodontists participated in the study. Quality of care was measured using the peer assessment rating (PAR) occlusal index, treatment duration, and parental satisfaction. Parental satisfaction was evaluated using a 25-item questionnaire measuring 3 dimensions: (1) treatment process; (2) psychosocial effects of treatment; and (3) treatment outcomes. The questionnaire items were scored on a scale of "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree."


RESULTS
At baseline, no differences were seen in the gender, starting dentition, and permanent teeth extractions of patients treated by the orthodontist and pediatric dentists. Statistically significant differences were seen in patients': (1) pretreatment age; (2) race; (3) primary teeth extractions; (4) treatment stages; and (5) pre-PAR scores. No statistically significant differences between orthodontists and pediatric dentists were observed regarding overall parental satisfaction or the dimensions of satisfaction. These results did not change after controlling for potential confounding factors such as patient's age, gender, starting dentition, treatment stage, extraction recommendations, pre-PAR score, treatment duration, and percentage PAR reduction.


CONCLUSIONS
The quality of orthodontic care, when measured by parental satisfaction, was similar between orthodontists and pediatric dentists. This indicates that, as far as parents are concerned, pediatric dentists performed orthodontic treatment to the same high standard as orthodontists.
Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research, Goldman School of Dental Medicine, Boston University, Boston, Mass, USA. karinam@bu.edu
Ana Karina
AK
Mascarenhas
Katherine
K
Vig
Bo-Hoon
BH
Joo
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D016017:Odds Ratio; D009970:Orthodontics; D009971:Orthodontics, Corrective / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010377:Pediatric Dentistry; D018024:Peer Review, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires