Dental patients' perceptions in a multiethnic environment

Ethnic relations in multicultural metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles are extremely complex and are probably reflected, at least in part, in the relations between dental providers and their patients. The goals of this study were to determine whether dental services provided by providers of a different ethnic group and whether there was a direct relation between the level of patient anxiety and the level of preference for providers of the same ethnicity. Patients at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry were surveyed using a 29-item questionnaire. The survey included questions concerning preference for their provider's ethnicity and gender, dental anxiety, dental satisfaction, dental health, and socioeconomic status. The study focused on the four most common groups of patients at USCSD: Asians, Blacks, Caucasians and Hispanics, and their perceptions with regard to the dental providers of five potential ethnic backgrounds: Asian, Black, Caucasians, Hispanics and Middle Eastern. The majority of patients in all ethnic groups reported no preference for the ethnicity of their provider listed their own ethnicity. Moreover, the recorded preference levels for providers of the own ethnicity in the Hispanic group were consistently higher in correlation with higher dental anxiety, lower satisfaction with dental treatment, and poorer dental health. Our study suggests that ethnic relations are a significant factor in the dental office in Southern California.