Background of the patients cooperating with the dental clinical training

Objective: Patients' cooperation for undergraduate clinical training is necessary for dental education. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the influence of the patients' backgrounds including the explanatory model and the attending behavior on their decision making for cooperating with the clinical training. Methods: 2331 new out patients who visited the clinic of oral diagnosis and general dentistry in the Dental Hospital of Tokyo Medical and Dental University from March 13 to June 29 in 2007 were examined in this study. The patients' explanatory models and the attending behaviors as well as age, gender and the decision on the cooperation for clinical training were investigated: The explanatory models were classified into diagnosis, reasons, severity, way of treatment and prognosis for the sickness considered by the patients themselves: The patients' behaviors, such as demanding second opinions, changing the dentist from another clinic to the Dental Hospital, complaining about the former dentist, referring information from mass media to attend the Dental Hospital, bringing a letter of referring from another doctor, and having history to attend the Dental Hospital in the past were recorded as the attending behavior. Results: 128 patients decided to cooperate for the clinical training. The cooperative patient possessed less explanatory model of severity of their sickness and showed less attending behavior such as demanding second opinions, change the dentist, complaining about the former dentist, using information from mass media, bringing a letter of referring (P<0.05, Fisher's exact probable test). On the other hand, the patients who had attended the Dental Hospital in the past were more cooperative with the clinical training (P<0.05, Fisher's exact probable test). Conclusion: The patients with simple background tended to be cooperative with the clinical training. Above all, the attending history to the Dental Hospital possibly had influences on the patients' cooperation.