Denture wearer's perception of ambient care. Part 2. Analyses of data

Abstract

Objective. The aim was to investigate to what extent denture wearers were satisfied with the ambient care (care) received. Materials and methods. A study sample of 117 completely edentulous and 56 partially edentulous patients, who had received their dentures in the period 1997–2005 at Bergen School of Dentistry, completed a questionnaire containing eight specific items regarding different aspects of care, each with two positive (a and b) and two negative (c and d) categories, and four global items. The care items, including confidence in the dental team, information, waiting time and cost, constitute the Ambient Care Scale; the global items were concerned with overall care, satisfaction with dentures, self-reported oral and general health. Results. Between 91–100% of Ambient Care Scale responses were in the two positive categories. The completely edentulous group was significantly more satisfied than the partially edentulous group regarding several Ambient Care Scale items and oral health. Also, ratios between categories b and a showed systematic higher degrees of satisfaction for the completely edentulous group than the partially edentulous group. Fifty-six per cent in the completely edentulous group and 36% in the partially edentulous group were very satisfied, i.e. with ≥6 of 8 possible responses in category a. Analysis of the very satisfied showed that the highest degrees of satisfaction for both groups were found regarding students and staff, the lowest regarding cost and waiting times. Conclusions. Patient satisfaction with care was very high. Completely edentulous patients were systematically more satisfied than partially edentulous ones.