Perceptions of dentists towards poor people

Introduction: In Quebec (Canada), welfare recipients benefit from public insurance that covers their basic dental care. Despite this coverage, these individuals present a very poor state of oral health and rarely visit the dentist. For their part, dentists encounter numerous difficulties when welfare recipients visit their clinics. Practitioners develop practical knowledge, based on stereotypes, about the welfare recipients and poverty in general; this knowledge is necessary in situations requiring rapid decision-making into which they are continually thrust as dental practitioners.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of the perceptions held by general dentists in regard to their underprivileged patients, and to identify the principal components.

Methods: This research was carried out using data from the 2006 survey on dental practices (Sondage sur la pratique dentaire 2006), conducted by the Ordre des dentistes du Québec, Canada. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to all general dentists in the province of Quebec, Canada in October 2004 (3,704 dentists). Response rate: 26.7% (988 dentists). Data was collected on the practices of dentists and on their perceptions of patients receiving welfare assistance. Descriptive data analyses and a factorial analysis were carried out.

Results: The descriptive data analyses showed that a large majority of dentists held negative perceptions about patients on welfare, and that these stereotypes came mainly from a negative evaluation of their hygiene habits (90%), their lifestyle habits (94%) and failed appointments (85%). The results of the factorial analysis revealed that the perceptions developed by dentists about their welfare patients were based on four main issues: their propensity for missing appointments, their personalities, their preventive habits and their behaviors.

Conclusion: It appears that it is important, both during training and through continuing education, to sensitize dentists to the problems of poverty and access to services in order to bring about a change in attitude.