title: The importance of teaching communication in dental education. A survey amongst dentists, students and patients.
abstract: The aim of our study was to evaluate the subjective importance of teaching communication in the dental curriculum by conducting a survey amongst dentists, students and patients. Three questionnaires about communication-related issues were developed in which different questions could be rated on a five-point Likert scale. These questions included the subjective importance of the dental team's friendliness, an elaborated consultation, modern office equipment or the dentist's technical skills. Seven hundred and twenty-nine questionnaires were completed [233 by dentists (32%), 310 by students (43%) and 185 by patients (25%)]. Eighty-seven percentage of the dentists, 84% of the students and 84% of the patients supported an integration of communicational issues in dental education; 94.7% of the dentists and 77.2% of the patients attached vital importance to the dentist-patient relationship regarding the therapeutic outcomes. Dentists with prior communicational training experience would spend significantly (P<0.001) more money for further courses. The results show the publicly perceived importance of integrating aspects of communication in dental education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Operative Dentistry and Periodontology, Dental School and Hospital University Medical Center, Freiburg, Germany. petra.ratka-krueger@uniklinikfreiburg.de
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Woelber
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Deimling
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Langenbach
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ratka-Krüger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003142:Communication; D003479:Curriculum; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires