Abstract
Background and aim: Children make judgments about the dentist on the basis of dentists’ attire and talking gestures during dental visits. It is important to focus on dentists’ attire as they can adjust their attire according to a child’s preference. This study aims to assess the preferences of children regarding dentist attire in Al-Madinah Munawarah.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design has been incorporated by recruiting 202 patients aged between 9 and 12 years of age from Taibah University Hospital. The study was carried out from March to June 2018 through a questionnaire that consists of 15 questions to assess the attire preference of the dentist. The data obtained through the questionnaire was analyzed through Microsoft Excel and imported to SPSS Statistical Software version 21.
Results: The majority of the children (59.9%) specified that the attire of the dentist was important for them and 45.5% of them preferred the dentist to wear perfume. The majority of the children (57.4%) preferred that the dentist did not wear any jewelry. Moreover, the majority of the children (49.5%) preferred that dentists wore a white coat with white scarf. was preferred by the majority of the children (49.5%). Closed-toe shoes were preferred by most of the children (68.8%) and 56.9% of the children preferred the dentist to wear flat shoes. The attitude of dentists towards wearing shoes, jewelry, goggles, watches, badges, and face mask was found to have significant difference at 5% confidence interval; whereas, the children did not prefer traditional outfit worn by the dentists on their visit to the dental clinic.
Conclusion: There is a significant impact of dentist attire on the child’s acceptance of the dental procedure.
Acknowledgment
The author would like to express his gratitude to all the personnel who contributed directly or indirectly towards this research.
Ethics statement
This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (TUCD.REC) of the College of Dentistry, Taibah University, Saudi Arabia (Study reference number: TUCDREC/2OI 80302/Bahammamll). Informed consent was obtained from all of the participants and from the parent/guardian of each of the participating children before starting the procedures.
Disclosure
The author reports no conflict of interest in this work.