Exploring the motivations and challenges of private dental practitioners in rural India: A qualitative analysis

Considering the contribution of the oral health care mandate in meeting the dental needs of the rural dwellers and apprehension on the declining number of dentists in the rural areas, there is still a dearth of empirical evidence on dentists' motives and working rural environment.

To understand the rewards and roadblocks by private dental practitioners in rural localities.

A qualitative study was conducted using purposive sampling, on practicing private dentists in rural neighborhoods. A semistructured interview was performed of participating dentist at their respective place of work. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded using pre-set and emergent codes. Data were collected until study reached thematic saturation.

Twenty-eight participants including 19 men and 09 women working privately in rural areas of India were part of the study. Six main themes were identified: Familiarity, education, clinical care delivery, financial factors, village proximity to city and lack of facilities. The most influential of these themes were rural upbringing which had a positive influence and lack of facilities was considered unappealing for dental practitioners to live.

These results stress the continuity of rural background in dentist's decision to practice in rural areas. The living standards of the rural population should be improved and villages' access by construction and rehabilitation of rural roads should be improved. The abovediscussed factors should be taken into considerations to determine how to take appropriate measures for eradicating the social inequalities in availability of dental practitioners.