title: Does dental undergraduate education and postgraduate training enable intention to provide inhalation sedation in primary dental care? A path analytical exploration.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine how quality standards of dental undergraduate education, postgraduate training and qualifications together with confidence and barriers could be utilised to predict intention to provide inhalation sedation.
  
  
  METHODS
  All 202 dentists working within primary dental care in NHS Highland were invited to participate. The measures in the questionnaire survey included demographic information, undergraduate education and postgraduate qualifications, current provision and access to sedation service, attitudes towards confidence, barriers and intention to provide inhalation sedation. A path analytical approach was employed to investigate the fit of collected data to the proposed mediational model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred and nine dentists who completed the entire questionnaire participated (response rate of 54%). Seventy-six per cent of dentists reported receiving lectures in conscious sedation during their undergraduate education. Statistically significantly more Public Dental Service dentists compared with General Dental Service (GDS) dentists had postgraduate qualification and Continuing Professional Development training experience in conscious sedation. Only twenty-four per cent of the participants stated that they provided inhalation sedation to their patients. The findings indicated that PDS dentists had higher attitudinal scores towards inhalation sedation than GDS practitioners. The proposed model showed an excellent level of fit. A multigroup comparison test confirmed that the level of association between confidence in providing inhalation sedation and intention varied by group (GDS vs. PDS respondents). Public Dental Service respondents who showed extensive postgraduate training experience in inhalation sedation were more confident and likely to provide this service.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The quality standards of dental undergraduate education, postgraduate qualifications and training together with improved confidence predicted primary care dentists' intention to provide inhalation sedation.
authors.affiliation: Dental Health Services Research Unit, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Dental Health Services Research Unit, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: J Carson
authors.affiliation: Dental Health Services Research Unit, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rooksby
authors.affiliation: Public Dental Service, NHS Highland, Inverness, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McKerrow
authors.affiliation: Public Dental Service, NHS Highland, Inverness, UK.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lush
authors.affiliation: Health Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Humphris
authors.affiliation: Dental Health Services Research Unit, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.|Dental Public Health, NHS Tayside, Dundee, UK.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Freeman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000766:Anesthesia, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016292:Procedural Sedation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000592:standards; D004499:Education, Dental, Graduate / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists'; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: attitudes; conscious sedation; education and training; primary dental care