Factors influencing patient satisfaction with dental appearance and treatments they desire to improve aesthetics

• Published in: BMC oral health Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 6
• Main Authors: Tin-Oo, Mon Mon, Saddki, Norkhafizah, Hassan, Nurhidayati
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 23.02.2011; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aesthetics; Analysis; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Dental care; Dentistry; Educational Status; Esthetics, Dental - psychology; Esthetics, Dental - statistics & numerical data; Female; Health Services Needs and Demand - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Likelihood Functions; Logistic Models; Logistics; Malaysia; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Psychological; Orthodontics; Orthodontics, Corrective - psychology; Orthodontics, Corrective - statistics & numerical data; Patient satisfaction; Patient Satisfaction - statistics & numerical data; Psychological aspects; Quality of life; Questionnaires; ROC Curve; Sample size; Sampling Studies; Sampling techniques; Sex Factors; Social aspects; Standard deviation; Studies; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tooth Bleaching - psychology; Tooth Bleaching - statistics & numerical data; Variables; Young Adult; Malaysia
• ISSN: 1472-6831; 1472-6831
• DOI: 10.1186/1472-6831-11-6

We assessed factors influencing patients' satisfaction with their dental appearance and the treatments they desired to improve dental aesthetics. A cross-sectional study was performed out among 235 adult patients who visited the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia dental clinic. A structured, interviewer-guided questionnaire was used to identify patient satisfaction with their general dental appearance, cosmetic elements and desired treatments. The 235 patients consisted of 70 males (29.8%) and 165 females (70.2%), of mean age 31.5 years (SD 13.0). Of these patients, 124 (52.8%) were not satisfied with their general dental appearance. In addition, 132 patients (56.2%) were not happy with the color of their teeth, 76 (32.3%), regarded their teeth were poorly aligned, 62 (26.4%), as crowded and 56 (23.4%) protruded. Dissatisfaction with tooth color was significantly higher in female than in male patients (odds ratio [OR] of 1.99 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.13-3.50). Tooth whitening was the treatment most desired by patients (48.1%). Results of multiple logistic regression analysis showed that patient dissatisfaction with general dental appearance was significantly associated with female gender (OR = 2.18; 95% CI: 1.18-4.03), unhappiness with tooth color (OR = 3.05; 95% CI: 1.74-5.34) and the opinion that their teeth protruded (OR = 2.91, 95% CI: 1.44-5.91). Most patients in this study were not satisfied with their dental appearance with a greater percentage of females expressing dissatisfaction than males. An age was not associated with satisfaction. Unhappiness with tooth color and feelings of having protruding teeth also had a significant negative influence on patient satisfaction with general dental appearance.