Assessment of dental satisfaction among school teachers in a metropolitan city

Dental satisfaction is a multi-dimensional concept, reflecting the total experience of health care and a major driving force of treatment seeking behaviour. At community level, school teachers, being the role model, also play a major role in public health. The aim of this study is to assess the dental satisfaction among school teachers in Hyderabad.

A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 515 private school teachers in Hyderabad. The survey tool used was Dental Satisfaction Questionnaire (DSQ) developed by Davies and Ware (1982). Data was analysed with SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 22.

The study comprised of 123 (23.9%) males and 392 (76.1%) females. Based on age, significant relation was found only for subscales 'access', 'quality' and 'general satisfaction' (P = 0.01, P = 0.04, P = 0.03 respectively). Though female subjects had higher mean scores for all subscales, significant difference was found only for subscales 'cost', 'quality', 'access total', 'general satisfaction', and 'overall Dental Satisfaction Index' (DSI) (P < 0.001, P = 0.001, P = 0.008, P < 0.001, P = 0.001 respectively). Subjects who had visited a dentist had higher mean scores and significant relation was found for subscales 'access' and 'general satisfaction' (P = 0.04, P = 0.04 respectively). Furthermore, subjects who visited a private practitioner had higher mean scores for most of the subscales.

Female subjects, subjects who had dental visit and those who had visited a private practitioner had higher dental satisfaction. Moreover, age and recent dental visit did not show any effect on dental satisfaction.