Dentists' perceptions of their patients relation to quality of care.

This study investigates dentists' perceptions of their patients and the relation of these perceptions to measures of actual quality of restorative treatment. The results indicate that 1) though the dentists see their patients as "cooperative," they perceived a substantial number of "problems," i.e., willingness to pay for optimal care or follow professional recommendations; and 2) there are significant associations between dentists' perceptions of patients and measures of the quality of restorative treatments; higher quality scores were associated with perceptions of a more cooperative patient.