Journal of Dental Medicine

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  Background and Aims: One of the important aspects for evaluating an organization is assessing the level of satisfaction of the clients. This study was conducted to compare the level of satisfaction between traditional and new methods of delivering dental care in the clinic of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

  Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 308 patients received dental care at the dental clinics of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in spring 2010. Data were collected from Comprehensive Care Unit (CCU) in addition to 7 isolated clinics including restorative, periodontics, endodontics, radiology, and prosthodontics (fix and removable) using translated version of the Dental Satisfaction Questionnaire (DSQ), consisted of 19 questions in three main domains in addition to demographic questions. Descriptive statistics was used as percentage of answers. In order to compare the mean score between domains ANOVA test was used.

  Results: The standardized mean scores in each domain were: pain control 58±17, access 59±12, quality 68±11 and total Dental Satisfaction Index (DSI) score of 62±10. 92.5% of the respondents reported that students were very careful when examining their patients. 96.8% reported that they treat their patients with respect . The most common reasons for dissatisfaction apart from waiting time and getting appointments were not providing preventive care and pain control.

  Conclusion: The results of this study shows acceptable level of satisfaction with dental care in teaching clinics of this dental school, however efforts on implementing preventive care and pain control strategies are suggested.

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Background and Aims: One of the major challenges in dental practice is dental complaints that majority of complaints resulted in criminal prosecution and the legal practitioners. The aim of this study was to investigate the patients’ complaints on the diagnosis and treatment plan, dentist’s behavior, treatment charge, and management unlike the behavior of medical affairs, lack of enforcement in Tehran Medical Council between 2005-2011.

Materials and Methods: We referred to the Medical Council in order to obtain permission for evaluating complaints of dentists in Tehran. All files in units of prosecutors, magistrates and judicial committee were evaluated. Data were analyzed using spss version16 software.

Results: The results showed that the highest percentage of complaints was related to the how treatment was managed (41.7%) and the lowest percentage of complaints were about the dentist's diagnosis and treatment plan (2.9%).

Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, with dentists’ awareness of the existing rules and strict supervision, occurrence of complaints on the dental treatment can be prevented.

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Background and Aims: Due to the prevalence of corona virus and restrictions on access to health care in the community, there are clearly many concerns and problems for the lives of people, especially the elderly. Older people are at higher risk for this type of virus than the other ages. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of dental services for the elderly during the corona outbreak and to provide solutions related to oral health of the elderly during the corona virus pandemic. Materials and Methods: The present review study was performed and the selected keywords were: coronavirus and dentistry, dentistry and the elderly, corona and the elderly. Articles were selected based on findings and related texts. English language articles were selected using Google Scholar, Science direct, PubMed and Research Gate search engines. Sources were reviewed between January 2019 and October 2020. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 15 articles were reviewed. Results: Research findings showed that most studies have pointed to the importance of mobile and tele-dentistry. In a coronary pandemic, it is very important to correctly diagnose the patient's problems and determine the best type of treatment for the elderly. In addition, the elderly should be prevented from entering the unnecessary dental treatments.

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Background and Aims: One of the most important consequences of the rapid growth of urbanization has been the unequal distribution of urban service specially health care services and escalation of social inequality of citizens. Therefore, this study was aimed to analyze the spatial distribution of dental centers in Isfahan from the perspective of spatial equity.
Materials and Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in 2023 in Isfahan city. The required data including the population of the fifteen districts of Isfahan city, the data of the geographic municipal areas and the dental centers of Isfahan city were put into Excell. The population data were gathered from the statistical yearbook of population and housing. The dentists’ data were gathered from the Medical Council. Addresses of the dental centers were fed into the Google earth and were found on the traffic map of Isfahan. Using the Arc GIS 10.8 software and based on the Geographic Information System concepts, the spatial justice was analyzed. Moran's autocorrelation index was used to determine the distribution pattern (cluster, scattered, random). Hot spot analysis and nearest neighbor distance (centers in this radius would have more access) were used. Access ratios were analyzed using the ratio of population to the distance of each parcel to the dental centers and then were categorized as privileged to, semi and unprivileged.
Results: Z-score of Moran test was more than the expected score of 2.58 at 0.01 level of significant, indicating the cluster pattern of dental settings distribution in Isfahan. Moran's index (0.076) was much more than the expected equity coefficient (-0.000055), indicating again the cluster pattern of distribution which was not favorable in terms of spatial justice. The nearest neighbor distance analysis indicated that by moving from the center of the city to the outskirts of the city, access to dental centers decreased. Access analysis determined that privilege areas of the city were located mostly in central municipal areas and about 60% of these areas were limited to three municipal regions. Also, about 63% of the city area were categorized as unprivileged.
Conclusion: Distribution of dental centers in the city of Isfahan is not an equal distribution and the dental settings are mostly concentrated in the central areas of the city, not necessarily in high populated areas. There, this pattern necessitates the proper planning to establish dental settings in deprived and high-populated parts of the city.