Dental care satisfaction among adult population in Isfahan, Iran and its influencing factors

The aim of this study was to assess the level of dental care satisfaction among Iranian adult population and to identify socio-demographic factors and factors related to dental service that affect satisfaction.
A self-administrated valid and reliable 21-item questionnaire was designed and distributed among 1360 adult population living in Isfahan, Iran, using multi-stage proportional cluster sampling. It consisted of 5 main sections including demographic questions, perceived oral health status, oral health behaviors, barriers in receiving the demanded care and some 5-point Likert scale questions to assess the satisfaction level. Chi-square and analysis of variance were used to compare variables. People were classified as satisfied/dissatisfied based on their total score with score of 26 as the cut-off point. A logistic regression model was used to identify the factors affecting the level of satisfaction and to estimate their effect size.
The mean age of participants was 31.2 ± 11.3 and they mostly reported to have dental visits during the last year. The mean satisfaction score was 3.34 out of 5 (53% were satisfied) and the least and the most satisfaction was in regard to waiting time and the convenience to access, respectively. Logistic regression showed that participants in lower age group [odds ratio (OR) = 0.7], those who reported their oral health status as poor (OR = 0.8) and those who had to spend more time to reach dental care setting (OR = 0.6) and those who had to wait more (OR = 0.5) were less satisfied.
About 53% of participants were satisfied which was much lower than percentage of satisfied people in developed countries and the level of satisfaction was associated with socio-demographic, behavioral and also dental service.