The dental appointment and patient behavior. Differences in patient and practitioner preferences, patient satisfaction, and adherence.

Although the quantity and, in many cases, the quality of research on the practitioner-patient interaction has improved over the last 10-15 years, many related topics remain largely unexplored. The relationship of the similarity of practitioner and patient preferences to treatment adherence has not been carefully investigated, either in a medical or dental setting. This paper presents a study of patient and practitioner preferences for a dental appointment, and assesses the impact of their similarity on patient satisfaction with the appointment and adherence to the recommended treatment regimen. Results indicate that the similarity of patient and dental student preferences for an appointment is a very significant predictor of patient satisfaction with the appointment, reported improvement in oral hygiene behavior, and actual improvement in objective dental health. Patient satisfaction was, in turn, an independent predictor of reported behavior change and objective improvement in dental health. Similarity of patient and practitioner preferences for appointments should be studied more carefully in future doctor- and dentist-patient interaction research, as it is a critical variable for understanding how the interaction experience is translated into patient behavior.