Perceptions of dentists' chairside behavior in a military dental care system

A dental questionnaire was developed to assess patients' perceptions of dentists' chairside behavior in the military dental care system at Fort Carson, CO. Patients' perceptions of military and civilian dentists were found to be generally positive. No significant difference was found on the perceptions of civilian and military dentists in six of eight categories of personal behaviors involved in the chairside dentist-patient relationship. However, patients felt more rushed with civilian dentists and questioned more the necessity of dental work by civilian dentists. Nevertheless, patients appear to make minimal distinctions between these two groups, simply perceiving them as "the dentist."