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Toward a typology of preventively oriented dentists
1Department of Dentistry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York 10461.
Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology
|October 1, 1987
Summary
Dental practitioners’ engagement in academic dentistry, continuous education, innovation, and having a dental hygienist predict preventive behaviors. These factors are key to enhancing dental care quality and patient outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Dental Public Health
- Behavioral Science in Dentistry
Background:
- Preventive dental behaviors are crucial for oral health outcomes.
- Identifying predictors of these behaviors among general dental practitioners is essential for targeted interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify factors influencing preventive behavior among dental general practitioners in New York State.
- To compare predictors of preventive behavior in urban versus rural dental practices.
Main Methods:
- Telephone interviews with 217 dental general practitioners (120 urban, 97 rural).
- Development of a clinician preventive orientation index based on program content and patient visits.
- Multiple regression analysis to identify predictors of preventive behavior.
Main Results:
- Involvement in academic/institutional dentistry, education via journals/courses, innovation, and presence of a hygienist significantly predicted preventive behavior.
- Specific differences in predictors were observed between urban and rural practitioners.
- Findings were compared with four previous studies on dentists' preventive behavior predictors.
Conclusions:
- Academic involvement, continuous education, innovative attitudes, and dental hygienist presence are key predictors of preventive dental practices.
- Understanding these predictors can inform strategies to promote preventive care in diverse dental settings.
- Further research can build upon these findings to optimize dental public health initiatives.