~ i ~ h ~ ~ d ~ ~ has compiled a comprehensive bibliogaphical review of studies which describe factors related to the utilization of dental services in the United States and other countries. Examples of variables described in the differential use of dental services include financing, anxiety and fear, past experiences, perceptions and personalities of both providers and recipients of dental ser...

PURPOSE Several European countries have interprofessional training for health care professional students, including dental and dental hygiene students. However, very little training exists in the U.S. where dentists and dental hygienists are educated together. The 4th World Congress of Preventive Dentistry and the American Dental Education Association have stated that teamwork must be taught i...

OBJECTIVES To document the trends in expenditures on dental health care services and the number of dental health care professionals in Canada from 1990 to 1999. METHODS Information on dental and health expenditures, numbers of dentists, hygienists and dental therapists, and the population of Canada and the provinces were obtained from the Canadian Institute for Health Information; data on num...

Oral health is essential to an older adult's general health and well-being. Yet, many older adults are not regular users of dental services and may experience significant barriers to receiving necessary dental care. This literature review summarizes national trends in access to dental care and dental service utilization by older adults in the United States. Issues related to geriatric dentistry...

Hospital gradation systems are used to examine the performance of hospitals to promote the efficient use of medical resources (1). Patient-perceived service quality may differ for differing grades of medical institutions under gradation system , which has been rarely reported. The aim of the present study was to explore the relation between the hospital gradation system and patient perceptions ...

OBJECTIVE To determine why patients attend dental-care facilities in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and to improve understanding of the capacity of oral health-care services in urban west Africa. METHODS We studied a randomly selected sample of patients attending 15 dental-care facilities in Ouagadougou over a 1-year period in 2004. Data were collected using a simple daily record form. FINDINGS ...

The theme of the Elders' Oral Health Summit is older adults' access to dental care and how this situation can be improved for future cohorts. A major question is whether older adults today, as well as baby boomers who will be entering their seventies within the next decade, will demand dental care as part of their overall well-being. The current cohort of elders varies widely in its use of dent...

Access to oral health care continues to be a problem in the United States. Research has called for innovative approaches to improve access to oral health care and reduce oral health care disparities. Successful alternate approaches have been reported. In 1998 the Kansas Legislature passed a proposal to enhance access to care and manpower needs by allowing dental assistants to provide supragingi...

Accreditation standards require U.S. dental schools to prepare their graduates for the diagnosis of treatment needs of patients with special health care needs (SHCN). The objective of this study was to explore dental students' perceptions of their education about these issues, their satisfaction with this education, and their professional attitudes and behavioral intentions concerning treating ...

Using recent Canadian health survey data, we investigated the effect of socioeconomic status on patients' use of dental services and dental insurance coverage. Our results point to an important socioeconomic gradient in the use of dental services. The probability of receiving any dental care over the course of a year increases markedly with dental insurance, household income, and level of educa...