Opportunities for Epidemiological Data Collection in Dental Practices: A Thematic Analysis of Dutch Dentists' Views

Epidemiological oral health data are essential for informing public health policy and evaluating care. In the Netherlands, OrangeForce and the Oral Health Monitor seek to resume data collection by extracting information from dental practices using both automated (ie, software-based extraction) and manual (ie, user-entered in web-based forms) methods. As the success of these methods depends on cooperation from providers, this study aimed to explore the perspectives of Dutch dentists on collecting oral health data from practices, focussing on automated and manual data collection.

Thirteen dentists were individually interviewed between May-December 2024 using a predefined topic list. The initial three participants were purposively sampled; others were approached to ensure variation in background characteristics. The interviews were thematically analysed using Atlas.ti.

The dentists - assisted by a dental assistant - recorded most data directly during check-ups. Recorded data varied considerably in both content and method of documentation. Although the dentists generally supported data collection, they noted that more consistent and structured recording would be required for automated methods. Manual collection was perceived as time-consuming, although clear instructions could mitigate this. Eventually, the decision to participate in manual data collection largely depended on the required workload and time investment. Benchmark feedback could serve as a key incentive but is informative only with sufficiently large samples per dentist.

Dutch dentists widely acknowledged the importance of epidemiological oral health data collection but identified several practical challenges. Currently, manual data collection via web-based forms seems more feasible than automated registration, which requires technical improvements and workflow changes. Clear instructions and the involvement of oral care providers in the development of the data collection procedures are necessary to improve data quality and manage research burden. Further advancement of dental software systems is needed to facilitate structured data collection in the future.