Research priorities for oral healthcare: agenda setting from the practitioners’ perspective

Figures & data

Figure 1. Design of the study. Schematic presentation of the phases and structure of the study.

Table 1. Distribution of data in each stage of the research agenda setting process.

Topics suggested in survey 1, grouped by research area			Research themes derived from topics; grouped by specific research domain			Result from survey 2
Research areas	Number of topics	(%)	Specific research domains	Number of research themes	%	Research themes in top-10
Prevention	68	7	Prevention and lifestyle	9	11	#1 and #4 and #6
Diagnostics	19	2
Patient factors	21	2
Special needs groups	49	5	Special needs groups	5	6	#2
Anaesthetics^a	12	1
Oral medicine/surgery	100	11	Oral medicine/surgery	11	13	#3 and #9
TMJ	50	5	TMJ	7	8	#5
Cariology	103	11	Cariology	7	8	#7 and #10
Periodontology	68	7	Periodontology	6	7	#8
Orthodontics	73	8	Orthodontics	9	11
Pain	69	7	Pain	6	7
Tooth replacement	18	2	Tooth replacement/restoration	13	15
Tooth restoration	93	10
Implantology	20	2
Removable prosthetics	40	4
Endodontology	134	14	Endodontology	11	13
Total	937	100	Total	84	100

The first column shows the distribution of topics from the first survey over the research areas. The second column shows how the research areas were grouped into specific research domains and how the research themes were distributed over these domains. The third column shows from which specific research domains the top-10 themes originate.

Table 2. Illustration of data handling.

Topic	Dental research area	Merged into theme	Specific research domain
‘What is the effect of dental education for the individual? Would it be better to spend that time differently?’	Prevention	What is the effectiveness of various preventive treatments? (dental education, fissure sealing, scaling and polish, fluoride application)	Prevention and lifestyle
‘My colleague advises fissure sealants while I see no indication for it.’	Prevention
‘It is difficult to achieve behavioral change in patients.’	Patient factors	What is the most effective method for behavioural change?	Prevention and lifestyle
‘How to deal with stubborn patients who don't follow up advice?’	Patient factors

Dental research themes derived from suggested topics, and logically grouping of the themes in specific research domains. ^aEight of the topics in Anaesthetics were grouped into research themes in the domain of special needs groups (general anaesthesia), four were grouped into a research theme in oral medicine/surgery (local anaesthesia).

Table 3. Distribution of respondents’ OHP disciplines and age categories.

	Respondents of online survey 1 Topic elicitation n (%)	Respondents of online survey 2 Theme prioritization n (%)	Dutch OHP population n (%)
Discipline
Dentist	99 (47)	77 (33)	8,024 (60)
Dental hygienist	46 (22)	57 (24)	4,052 (30)
Orthodontist	19 (9)	24 (10)	615 (6)
Specialised dentist	20 (10)	50 (21)	770 (5)
Total^a	184 (88)	208 (89)	13,461
Age
20 − 29 years	13 (6)	33 (14)	2,380 (18)
30 − 39 years	39 (19)	59 (26)	3,445 (26)
40 − 49 years	46 (22)	38 (17)	2,881 (21)
50 − 59 years	67 (32)	67 (29)	3,071 (23)
60 − 69 years	39 (19)	29 (13)	1,684 (12)
70+ years	4 (2)	3 (1)	Not available
Total^a	208 (99)	229 (97)	13,461

^aNot all respondents completed the demographic data.

Table 4. Top-10 research themes for future oral healthcare research prioritised by OHPs.

Research themes	n	Rank sum	Specific research domain
What’s the most effective method to change behaviour to improve oral health?	69	250	Prevention and lifestyle
Oral healthcare for the geriatric patient: What are the implications for the treatment plan and treatment?	54	152	Special Needs Groups
What is the relation between (chronic) illnesses and oral health?	41	143	Oral medicine/surgery
What is the effect of preventive interventions? (dental education, sealants, supragingival calculus and/or professional removal of dental plaque, fluoride application)	36	122	Prevention and lifestyle
Tooth wear: when should it be treated, and what is the best treatment (method)?	38	107	TMJ
What is the relation between nutrition/diet and oral health?	33	104	Prevention and lifestyle
When has dental caries progressed so much that invasive treatment (drilling and filling) is required? What defines this treatment decision?	22	81	Cariology
What is the most effective supportive periodontal therapy (SPT) (method and frequency)?	22	81	Periodontology
What is the effect of (foreign) material use in the mouth on general health?	23	76	Oral medicine/surgery
Can we predict (the development of) caries based on the current knowledge?	24	75	Cariology

n: number of times the research theme was among an individual top-5. Rank sum was calculated as a product of n and weight. Weight was calculated as 5 − (r − 1) (r = ranking position).

Data availability statement

All data are available in the study.