Patient’s Satisfaction With Dental Treatment Provided By Undergraduate Students Of The College Of Dentistry

Backgrounds: The patient’s satisfaction is considered as a direct measure to assess the performance of clinicians and the clinics.The present study was, therefore, conducted to evaluate the level of patients’ satisfaction with treatment services provided by undergraduate students at the College of Dentistry, King Saud University. The main purpose of this investigation was to explore opportunities for further improvement in the BDS program as well as undergraduate dental care training at the College. Methods: Patients’ feedback was sought through cross-sectional research wherein a specialized questionnaire was circulated among all undergraduate clinics located at male and female campuses of the college. A total of 3200 survey forms were distributed among patients who were treated in the undergraduate clinics. The supervisors were requested to clarify any questions or ambiguity encountered by their patients in filling in the survey forms. The questionnaire consisted of 19 questions addressing all aspects of the patients’ care. Five-point Likert scale varying from 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree' was used to evaluate the feedback. The data were subjected to statistical analysis using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 21 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL) Results: The 2558 patients participated in the present investigations representing 80% of the total population. The highest level of patient's satisfaction was observed for preparedness, knowledge, and helpfulness of the young doctors by 88.97% of patients (n=2048). Only 9.6% (n=221) and 1.31% (n=33) patients attributed moderate and low levels of satisfaction to this question, respectively. Likewise, 86.78% (n=1963) patients were found highly pleased with the young doctors who explained all procedures before and during their treatment. The percentage of patients with a moderate and minimal level of satisfaction to this attribute was 11.67% (n=264) and 1.55% (n=35), respectively. The lowest satisfaction was observed concerning waiting time, followed by the comfort of the waiting room and knowledge of young dentists about the accurate estimation of expenses incurred in case some material was required wherein 61.44% (n=1388), 63.75% (n=1486) and 77.91% (n=1552) patients associated high satisfaction level, respectively. In fact, these questions proved as areas for further improvement. Conclusions: Results of the present investigations provided benchmark data to map and compare patients’ satisfaction with their treatment in undergraduate dental clinics. Most patients in the present investigations were found satisfied with the quality and standard of care provided to them in the undergraduate clinics. The survey results further reported that most patients had trust in the knowledge, capabilities, and skills of the undergraduate dental students. However, they showed dissatisfaction over waiting time, comfort in the waiting rooms and students’ knowledge about the accurate estimation of correct expenses concerning the dental materials required for treatment procedures.