A conceptual construction of patient-centered dental care for primary care dentists in Thailand

Abstract

The objective of this qualitative study was to develop a conceptual construct of patient-centered dental care for primary care dentists in Thailand. The study was divided into 2 steps, with the first step comprising a review of publications in dentistry as well as related medical and nursing care concerning patient-centered treatment. The second step involved in-depth interviews with participants using a semi-structured, open-ended interview form. The participants comprised 3 groups including 5 experts in patient-centered care, 7 dental practitioners, and 8 dental patients at community hospitals. The participants were recruited by purposive sampling. Interviews were transcribed and extracted conceptual constructs by using the thematic analysis method. Nine common attributes were extracted from 9 relevant articles, which could be used to create a patient-centered dental care model. These common attributes included communication, disease diagnostic and illness, whole person, shared information and decision-making, dentist-patient relationship, empathy, comprehensive care, continuing care, and coordinated care. In the second step, 12 attributes were obtained from the interview transcripts. The results found 3 different attributes including accessibility and the dentist’s self-awareness, and pain and anxiety management, and. The 12 attributes can be formed into 2 specific domains covering 1) patient-centered interpersonal care, consisting of 8 attributes, and 2) patient-centered integrated care, consisting of 4 attributes. Additionally, this notion could be expanded to further research focused on creating a measurement to assess the proficiency of patient-centered dental care for primary care dentists.