Influencing satisfaction for dental services.

A strong concern about consumer satisfaction characterizes the health care industry, reflecting, perhaps, the introduction of the marketing culture into this service industry. Consequently, consumer satisfaction with dental services has become the focus of several studies published in recent years. Past research has focused on two major issues: the initial choice of a dentist and continuity in dentist-patient relationships. The authors propose that consumer satisfaction with dental care is influenced by the variables waiting time, availability/convenience of care, pain management by dentists, costs, and continuity of care. They also hypothesize that demographic characteristics such as gender and age also influence consumer satisfaction. Implications for the management of dental practitioners are discussed. An abstract of this article was published in the 1992 AAAHCR Conference Proceedings.