Patient and Provider Acceptance of Oral HIV Screening in a Dental School Setting

In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended routine HIV screening in health care settings regardless of the patient's level of risk. This pilot study was developed in response to the suggestion by some health care professionals that dental settings would be appropriate for expansion of HIV testing. This project consisted of two parts: oral fluid HIV testing of patients in the clinic of a dental school and a survey of the clinical dental faculty members' attitudes about acceptability of routine HIV testing in the dental clinic. When patients' agreement to participate in oral fluid HIV testing was examined, 8.2 percent of the patients contacted by the clinic administration staff completed testing. When approached by a faculty member or student during the dental visit admission and tested during the dental visit, however, 88.2 percent completed testing. Of the faculty members who took the survey, 27.4 percent were neutral, 26.4 percent were somewhat in agreement, and 32.1 percent were willing to incorporate HIV testing into routine dental care. In this pilot study, HIV testing of dental patients was most successful when a dental care provider approached patients about testing. If consent was given, the testing was performed during the visit. For the faculty members, the major barrier to testing was a lack of protocol familiarity.     

Reflections on academic careers by current dental school faculty

During the inaugural year (2006-07) of the Academic Dental Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP), 110 faculty members at ten different dental schools were interviewed by dental students who were participating as ADCFP fellows in this year-long program designed to introduce them to faculty roles and activities and help them gain an appreciation for the rewards and issues associated with academic life. The goals, format, and components of the ADCFP are described in a companion article in this issue of the Journal of Dental Education. One of the fellows' assignments during the ADCFP was to interview faculty at various academic ranks who had differing degrees of work emphasis in teaching, research, service/patient care, and administration. Sixty-nine (63 percent of the total) of these interviews were reviewed and analyzed by the authors, who were student fellows in the ADCFP during 2006-07. The purpose of these interviews was to provide the fellows with insight into the positive aspects and challenges in becoming and remaining a dental school faculty member. This aggregate perspective of the interviews conducted at ten dental schools highlights the motivations and challenges that confront a dentist during the process of choosing a career in academic dentistry and determining if dental education is a good fit for each individual who elects to pursue this pathway. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed several factors consistently identified by faculty across the schools as being positive influences on the quality of the academic work environment and career satisfaction: mentorship and student interaction, opportunities for scholarship (research and discovery), job diversity, intellectual challenge, satisfaction with the nature of academic work, lifestyle/family compatibility, flexibility, lifelong learning, professional duty, and lab responsibility. A series of negative themes were also consistently identified: bureaucracy/administrative burdens and barriers, time commitment, financial frustration, political frustration, lack of mentorship, required research emphasis, lack of teaching skills development, student engagement, isolation, and funding uncertainty. This article reports the approximate frequency of each theme, presents representative statements that describe the motivations and attitudes of dental faculty members who were interviewed, and concludes with a review of programs/methods aimed at marketing academic careers to current students. The purpose of this review of the rewards, benefits, and challenges that current dental faculty face is to provide students who are considering dental education with a frame of reference to guide their further exploration of this career path and to help students appreciate the many positive aspects of academic life that may not be readily apparent from their own interactions with faculty members.     

Improving the oral health knowledge of osteopathic medical students

Due to a complex set of circumstances including culture, poverty, low educational achievement, and limited access to dental care, the oral health of rural Appalachians is poorer than that of people in other parts of Kentucky. Limited health care dollars go to primary medical care which may be the only contact these individuals have with the health care system. Consequently, primary care physicians can help improve oral health. The University of Kentucky College of Dentistry (UKCD) and the Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine (PCSOM) developed an oral health education block for third-year PCSOM students. Eleven UKCD faculty and one PCSOM faculty participated in the two-day, sixteen-hour oral health curriculum. Knowledge retention data from the post-tests was collected four months after the educational program. Students significantly improved their performance in six of the topic areas, with performance staying the same in one area and dropping significantly in one area. Focus groups were conducted with sixteen (two groups of eight) randomly selected students one year after the educational program. Students reported using the knowledge and oral exam techniques included in the course and felt that it was a valuable addition to their curriculum.     

A comprehensive clinical competency‐based assessment in periodontics

Traditional periodontics clinical examinations in dental education frequently assess a narrow set of clinical skills and do not adequately assess the ability of students to independently manage a periodontal patient. As an alternative, the authors developed a comprehensive periodontics competency case experience (CCCE) for senior dental students and surveyed students regarding their experience with the CCCE. Students challenging the CCCE must treat a patient with moderate periodontitis and must independently decide when a state of periodontal and oral health has been achieved. Students are also required to conduct an oral presentation to periodontology faculty. Dental students who completed the CCCE had a favourable impression of the experience, compared with the traditional clinical examinations taken in the junior year. The majority of students rated all the components of the CCCE as ‘somewhat’ or ‘very helpful’. About 72.4% of students felt that being able to work independently on the examination was very helpful for learning about the clinical management of patients with periodontal disease, followed by ‘simulation of care in private practice’ (65.5%), and oral photography experience (55.2%). The greatest difficulty reported by students was finding an acceptable patient. About 62.1% of students rated ‘finding the right patient’ as very difficult. Students reported having to screen a mean of 5.9 patients (SD: 4.5) to find a qualified patient. The results of the survey will be useful in improving the examination as an assessment tool in periodontal therapy.     

Development of an International Collaborative Dental Hygiene Programme between Japan and Canada

Abstract: This paper reports the development of an international dental hygiene educational programme between Japan and Canada, and the evaluation of its outcomes. In 2004, a unique collaborative programme with Canadian dental hygiene schools was introduced as part of a 3‐year dental hygiene curriculum. This international programme mainly consists of three parts: a spring (full Japanese faculty and student exchange to Canada), fall (select Japanese faculty and student exchange to Canada for focused professional development) and summer (select Canadian student exchange to Japan) component. The spring component provides an opportunity for all Japanese students to visit the Canadian dental hygiene schools at the end of their second year. Students and faculty members share information about their programmes and culture through instructional presentations, chair‐side hands‐on clinical simulations, and table clinic presentations. For the fall component, selected Japanese students and faculty re‐visit the Canadian school for more extensive learning and exchange with Canadian students. Workshops are held for faculty on educational and research topics. For the summer component, selected second year Canadian students visit Japan. The Japanese students’ basic knowledge of Canada and Canadian dental hygiene showed statistically significant improvement (P < 0.001) as assessed by pre‐ and post‐tests. Other programme evaluations including faculty and students’ surveys have so far identified positive outcomes in learning and research. The programme has offered opportunities for faculty professional development and joint research projects. In conclusion, the findings reported here demonstrate that incorporation of the international collaborative programme can be a significant addition to dental hygiene education.     

A comprehensive care clinic in Swedish dental undergraduate education: 3-year report.

In 1993, a new undergraduate curriculum was introduced at the Faculty of Dentistry, Karolinska Institute. The expanded comprehensive care clinic described in this 3-year report, is proposed as a potential model for a CC-clinic in dental undergraduate education. Students enter clinical training at the beginning of the 3rd year and continue through to their final semester, in the 5th year. The one student is responsible for the total oral care of all his/her patients. Patients are stratified on admission into 3 levels, depending on the complexity of treatment need. Before being assigned their 1st patients (patient level I), the students must fulfil specified requirements of theoretical knowledge and clinical procedures and obtain a proficiency certificate. After qualifying for higher proficiency certificates, denoting their level of clinical responsibility, the students assume successively greater responsibility for treatment of patients, with less supervision from clinical instructors. Clinical supervision is the responsibility of integrated multidisciplinary teams of faculty members. Each group of students is assigned a clinical tutor, who is responsible for overall treatment planning of their patients. The individual student's clinical progress and achievements are monitored by a specially designed computer program. Criteria for a final pass in the course are: (1) clinical maturity in overall patient management; (2) technical competence in conjunction with theoretical knowledge. 3 years experience of the new model for comprehensive clinical training in a patient-centred, multidisciplinary clinic has shown that; (a) students seem to acquire a greater understanding of comprehensive case management; (b) patients receive more co-ordinated care; (c) there has been no significant change in the number of clinical procedures completed; (d) difficulties arise in co-ordination of staff over the traditional specialist boundaries; (e) assessment of student maturity and professional responsibility is impeded by the lack of objective criteria.     

North American dental students' perspectives about their clinical education

Many North American dental schools face the challenge of replacing the majority of their "boomer generation" clinical instructors over the next ten years as this cohort of faculty reaches retirement age. Developing a new cadre of clinical instructors poses a substantial faculty development challenge: what instructional techniques should be integrated into routine educational practice by the dental faculty of the future, and what aspects of the clinical learning environment should be addressed to improve the overall quality of the experience for patients, students, and the new cohort of instructors? To gain insight that might guide faculty development for new clinical instructors and enhance understanding of the learning environment in dental school clinics, this study addressed the following question: what are dental students' perceptions of their learning experiences in the clinical setting? The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the clinical instruction from the perspectives of the actual "consumer" of dental education: the student. This consumers' perspective was provided by 655 junior, senior, and graduate dental students at twenty-one North American dental schools who completed the Clinical Education Instructional Quality Questionnaire (ClinEd IQ) in 2003-04. The ClinED IQ examines four components of students' clinical experiences: 1) clinical learning opportunities, 2) involvement in specific learning activities, 3) interaction with clinical instructors, and 4) personal perceptions about clinical education. With the exception of inconsistent feedback and instruction and lack of continuous contact with the same instructors, juniors, seniors, and graduate students rated their interaction with clinical instructors favorably (mean=4.76 on a 6.00 scale), but provided lower ratings for clinical learning opportunities (mean=4.26 on a 6.00 scale) due to concerns about the efficiency of the dental clinic environment and lack of opportunity to treat patients in a variety of clinical settings. Analysis of more than 1,000 written comments provided by these students indicated four areas of concern: 1) inconsistent and sometimes insensitive (patronizing, rude) feedback from faculty; 2) excessive amounts of noneducational "legwork" such as billing, patient scheduling, phone calling, completing paperwork, and performing other clinic operations tasks; 3) limited access to faculty because of insufficient numbers of instructors on the clinic floor or difficulty locating faculty when they were needed for coaching, work evaluation, and chart signatures; and 4) concerns about the strategies employed to meet procedural requirements that some students saw as ethically questionable. Junior, senior, and graduate dental students at twenty-one North American dental schools perceived that the strongest aspect of their clinical education was their relationship with the faculty, but also reported that the dental school clinic was often an inefficient learning environment that hindered their opportunity to develop clinical competency. Students also sensed that faculty shortages, a growing crisis for dental education, hindered their progress in the clinic and made learning less efficient.     

Evaluation of an academic service-learning course on special needs patients for dental hygiene students: a qualitative study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of a service-learning course on special needs patients for dental hygiene students by considering student reflections, community site coordinators' feedback, and faculty reflections in a qualitative analysis. Twenty-three female dental hygiene students beginning their fourth semester in the program provided preventive oral health services at eight community sites serving six diverse groups of people having special health care needs. Students reflected on the experience via commentaries written in self-reflection journals. The investigators applied the constant comparative method to analyze and unitize the data, ultimately reaching consensus on three category topics: awareness, higher order thinking, and professionalism. End of course project assessments provided additional data that was used to triangulate with data from the reflective journals. Telephone interviews with the site coordinators and personal interviews with the course faculty provided data from multiple perspectives. The outcomes of this study suggest that service-learning pedagogy can facilitate a deeper understanding of the subject matter and provide an opportunity for students to use critical thinking strategies in addition to becoming aware of complex social and professional issues related to the oral health care of individuals with special needs.     

Comments as part of a clinical competency rating system

The nature of comments faculty members make about students' clinical performance and the relationship between comments and numerical scores given at the same time have not been studied in dental education. We developed a coding system for comments volunteered by faculty members to supplement the numerical ratings given as part of an established clinical competency evaluation system. Twenty-two hundred coded comments and their matched numerical ratings from more than 100 faculty members were compared for two classes of 146 and 157 students for four quarters. Thirty-seven percent of comments focused on dental performance, 43 percent on patient interactions, and 20 percent on relationships with faculty members or the clinic system. Forty-eight percent of comments were positive in tone. Where multiple comments were available for the same student in a quarter, 33 percent of them were confirmed by other faculty members; 9 percent were contradicted. Significant bidirectional associations were observed between comments (positive or negative) and numerical ratings in the area of patient interactions. For technical procedures and for interactions with faculty and the clinic, including professional demeanor, significant unidirectional associations predominated. The findings suggest that faculty members assume that students are skilled in these areas and tend to comment when their expectations are not fulfilled.     

Patients' satisfaction with dental services provided by a university in Hong Kong

This study was a consumer evaluation of the dental care services provided by a university dental clinic in Hong Kong which provides dental care to all university students and staff and their dependents. The objectives of this study were to study the consumers' satisfaction with the dental services; to identify their reasons for not using the dental services; and to compare the opinions of the students with those of the university staff and their spouses. A total of 140 students and 180 staff and their spouses were randomly selected for this study. The response rates were 100 per cent for students and 77 per cent for staff and their spouses. Results showed that both groups of respondents were satisfied with the quality of dental services provided by the university dental clinic. However, they were not satisfied with the long waiting time for an appointment. Students who had not attended the university dental clinic commonly stated that they were busy and had no time for a dental visit. Conversely, many staff and their spouses did not seek care from the university dental clinic because they thought that the fees were high. Although the overall Dental Satisfaction Index (DSI) scores for the students (64.5) and staff and their spouses (65.1) were similar, there were differences in the aspects of the services with which the two group were satisfied or dissatisfied. Thus if the university dental clinic wants to implement changes so as to improve consumer satisfaction and utilisation, a careful analysis of the specific opinions of its various consumer groups is required.     

Service quality implications of dental undergraduate outreach teaching for Primary Care Trusts in England, UK

OBJECTIVE: Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) assumed new responsibilities for dentistry in 2005. In dental education it has been suggested that more emphasis is made of primary care outreach schemes. The paper considers the service quality implications of dental outreach teaching for PCTs with particular reference to access and acceptability. RESEARCH DESIGN AND CLINICAL SETTING: A pilot of outreach teaching for Manchester undergraduates in relation to adult dental care began in 2001. Six groups of eight students, working in pairs, spent one day per week in one of three community dental clinics in socially deprived areas. The evaluation of the first year used data from 908 patient treatment summaries, 139 patient questionnaires, and records of patient attendance. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Access and acceptability measured by patients' demographic characteristics, patients' attendance at the clinics; patients' reasons for attendance, use of services and satisfaction with the service. RESULTS: In terms of access, the new service was used by local patients. Their main reasons for attending were convenience, a dental problem, free treatment, lack of access to a dentist, and lay referral. Some 41 percent attended initially because of an emergency, 30 percent said that if they had not attended the clinic they would have gone nowhere or did not know where they would have gone, and 49 percent had not attended a dentist for more than two years. In terms of acceptability most patients were positive about being treated by a student, 96 percent thought the quality of care excellent or good, and the same percentage said they would return to the clinic. The main areas of criticism were waiting times and appointments. CONCLUSIONS: Students can provide an accessible and acceptable local primary care dental service for adult patients in socially deprived areas as part of their undergraduate learning, and in a way that complements the existing services.     

A logbook for continuous self-assessment during 1 year in paediatric dentistry.

AIM: The present study was designed to investigate whether a logbook helps undergraduate students to develop the ability to self-reflect and to increase their self-awareness. METHODS: A logbook was introduced to 54 dental students in their fourth year of education at the beginning of the paediatric dentistry course. The students filled in a questionnaire on learning styles at the start of the course and after 12 months. RESULTS: The results showed that at the end of the course significantly fewer students wished to be given detailed instructions to solve problems. Significantly more students felt able to expose both their weaknesses and strengths in clinical competence in the presence of their teachers. Students who reported a good knowledge of their own clinical skills found feedback from instructors more constructive compared with those who reported less good knowledge. CONCLUSION: For a large group of students, the logbook stimulated self-reflection, learning from personal clinical experience, and an increase in knowledge about their weaknesses and strengths in clinical competence.     

Improving tobacco dependence education among the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry faculty

Tobacco-related health problems are among the most preventable forms of illness. By assuming proactive tobacco use counseling roles, dental professionals can help reduce the number of people who use tobacco. Minimum standards for intervention by dental care providers were established more than a decade ago by the American Dental Association and the American Dental Hygienists' Association. The goal of Loma Linda University School of Dentistry in its tobacco-cessation efforts is to move beyond those standards towards more effective interventions. The school conducted a study to determine the formal education of the faculty, evaluate the current state of tobacco dependence education (TDE) delivered to students, identify topics that dental faculty members wanted to further their education, promote tobacco dependence education among the dental faculty, and enhance teaching moments on the clinic floor. A fifty-seven question survey was e-mailed to all faculty members with >0.4 FTE (full-time equivalent) during the 2007-08 school year. The response rate was 80 percent (101 out of 126). The results revealed that faculty members have limited formal training; however, 73.1 percent agreed that TDE would be beneficial to them. They also believed that, upon graduation, dental professionals should be able to perform at least a ten-minute moderate intervention program and discuss options for tobacco dependence treatments with patients. This project was designed to establish a 2008-09 baseline of TDE clinical practices, knowledge, and attitudes and to assess the effects of faculty development, curricular didactic, and clinical changes.     

Improving patient retention and access to oral health care: the CARES program

Improving access to dental care for patients experiencing barriers such as financial, transportation, or mental health is a public health concern. Dental schools have an obligation to assist patients experiencing such barriers as well as to educate future dentists and allied professionals on how to assist these patients in overcoming barriers. Once admitted to the dental clinic, retention issues can further complicate the provision of dental care. This article will describe an innovative program designed to address biopsychosocial barriers to dental care. Needs assessments of patients sitting in the waiting room of the dental clinic were conducted by master's of social work (M.S.W.) students. Based on needs assessment results, common dental care barriers were identified and served as the foundation for the establishment of a social work program in the dental clinic. Dental students, faculty, and staff refer patients to the social work program when barriers to care are found. These biopsychosocial barriers are addressed by social workers, uniquely qualified professionals in providing case management, advocacy, referrals, education, and services (CARES). Over the course of three years, 80 percent of patients experiencing an identified barrier to the receipt of dental care were retained through social work intervention. These patients were able to receive dental care within the past year. Dental schools can collaborate with social work schools to establish a protocol and assistance program for dental patients experiencing difficulty accessing care, thereby improving oral health status, retention rates, and dental student education.     

Dental students' beliefs about culture in patient care: self-reported knowledge and importance

In order to decrease the well-documented disparities in oral health and oral health care, the next generation of dentists must be prepared to serve a diverse patient population. This article describes dental students' self-reported knowledge of culture and importance of using culturally sensitive dental practices. Three consecutive graduating classes (n=111) were surveyed anonymously in their sophomore years. Students indicated their self-rated knowledge of oral health and oral health care for their own culture and the cultures of patients they are likely to see in dental practice. Students also rated their perceived importance of culturally sensitive dental practice. Overall, students reported low knowledge of the cultures of the patients they will see in practice. Few students could identify any cultural group that they knew well. However, students as a group indicated that using culturally sensitive practices in dentistry is important. Students who could identify at least one cultural group they knew well perceived cultural sensitivity in dental practice as more important than students who could not. These results suggest that students need cross-cultural training and believe that such training is important. The results also suggest that a specific curriculum that increases knowledge of other cultures may have the potential to ultimately increase the use of culturally sensitive practices.     

Dental students’ perceived comfort and future willingness to treat underserved populations: surveys prior to and immediately after extramural experiences

The purpose of this study was to compare the perceived change in comfort level and future willingness of senior dental students toward treating 12 different groups of traditionally underserved populations. Written surveys of senior dental students were conducted prior to and after completing extramural clinical rotations. A Likert‐type scale was used to assess student comfort, whereas future willingness to treat these populations was dichotomous. Over a 13‐year period (1992–2004), 560 students completed both surveys. There was an improvement in students’ comfort level for 7 of 12 groups after the community‐based assignments, yet there were no differences among population groups based on students’ gender or assignments. There were positive changes for future willingness to treat patients who were mentally compromised, homeless, and non‐English speaking, while there was a negative change for treating patients who were frail and elderly and those who were HIV+ or had AIDS. Students with improved comfort levels were more apt to be willing to treat patients who were frail elderly, medically complex, mentally compromised, and non‐English speaking in the future. While student comfort in treating several groups improved after completion of the community‐based experiences, there were mixed results for future willingness to treat underserved populations.     

The need for tobacco education: studies of collegiate dental hygiene patients and faculty

The need for inclusion of comprehensive tobacco control education/training for health care providers continues to be stressed in publications addressing cessation services. The dental appointment presents an excellent opportunity to provide tobacco interventions to basically healthy people on regular intervals. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to assess the need (stage of change and concomitant need for tobacco cessation intervention) of dental hygiene patients at a Midwest dental hygiene clinic, and 2) to assess and compare the level of tobacco intervention education currently being offered by dental hygiene educators in a Midwestern state. Patients (n=426) of a collegiate dental health clinic completed a survey that assessed the level and type of tobacco cessation intervention patients might require. A statewide sample of dental hygiene faculty (n=97) were surveyed to determine the attitudes, perceived barriers, and current practices in tobacco education offered in their programs. Of patients who currently smoked (34.5 percent), 24.7 percent indicated being in the Action stage of change; 14.2 percent were in Preparation; 22.2 percent were in Contemplation; and 29 percent were in Precontemplation. Although faculty indicated tobacco education was very important (5.03 on 1-6 scale), they felt only moderately confident delivering tobacco education (3.18 on a 1-5 scale). Only 16 percent to 35 percent of faculty reported that their curriculum included brief motivational interviewing, pharmacotherapies, or setting-up a private practice tobacco control program. The results strongly suggest the need for a comprehensive, competency-based tobacco curriculum to enhance and expand existing dental hygiene programs.     

Patients treated by dental students in outreach: the first year of a pilot project

This paper describes the patients treated by 4th year undergraduate students during the first year of a pilot outreach course to teach Restorative Dentistry in community clinics in 2001-02. Data were collected from 908 summaries of patient treatment completed by the students, and from 139 patient questionnaires. Some 75% of patients were aged between 16 and 64, 58% were female, and 16% had dental phobia or anxiety. Most lived locally to the clinic and 41% made their initial contact as an emergency or drop-in. Some 37% made only a single visit (including children treated as emergencies) but 22% made six or more visits. Did not attend (DNA) was a problem and 18% of patients DNA to complete their treatment. Students undertook the full range of restorative procedures, with the emphasis on direct restorations, preventive treatment and advice, scaling, extractions and emergency treatment. Patients' main reasons for attending the clinic were lay recommendation, the need for treatment, convenience, free treatment, or the lack of access to a dentist. Some 30% said they did not have or did not know of an alternative source of dental care, and half had not seen a dentist for at least 2 years. The study demonstrates that despite difficulties related to attendance, a suitable patient base can be established offering students the opportunity to provide comprehensive care for adults in a primary care setting.     

Factors that affect patient attitudes toward infection control measures.

This study examined how differences in infection control procedures and patients' perceived knowledge of infection control, and how AIDS and hepatitis might affect attitudes toward the use of such measures. Patients receiving treatment at two sites where the methods of infection control and the frequency of their use differed (dental school and private dental practices) were surveyed concerning their approval/acceptance of infection control measures and self-report of knowledge concerning infectious disease and possible transmission of infectious disease during dental treatment. Data were collected from 379 patients, 272 from the dental school and 107 from five private practices. A high percentage (95 percent) of both dental school and private patients felt they were adequately protected, while fewer than 2 percent expressed anxiety about infection control procedures being used in either setting. Factors such as gender, age, and years of formal education did not significantly affect attitudes toward infection control measures, but age and education were correlated with perceived knowledge of infectious diseases. Patients' reported knowledge of infectious disease had a significant effect on their decision to leave a practice if the dentist was HIV positive. A significantly higher percentage of dental school patients felt that barrier infection control techniques should be used routinely. Patients treated where such techniques were not routinely used nevertheless expressed satisfaction with that level of protection, implying that patients tend to accept the level of infection control being practiced where they receive treatment.     

Consumers' choice of dentists: how and why people choose dental school faculty members as their oral health care providers

This study aimed to better understand how and why people choose dental school faculty members as their oral health care providers. Increasing financial constraints in U.S. dental schools have led their administrators to seek alternative funding sources, one of which can be revenues from dental school faculty practice. To effectively promote faculty practice, it is necessary to understand how and why one chooses a dental school faculty member as his or her oral health care provider. A survey of 1,150 dental school faculty practice patients who recently chose their dentist was conducted, and 221 responded. The information sources these respondents said they used and rated highly were other dentists, friends, family members, clinic website, the Internet, and the insurance directory. Dentist-related attributes that were perceived to be important were quality of care, professional competence of dentist, and explanation of treatment/patient participation in the treatment decision. Dental practice-related attributes perceived to be important were the ability to get appointments at convenient times, reasonable waiting time to get appointments, and attitude/helpfulness of staff. This study found that traditionally popular (family, friends) and newly emerging information sources (the Internet, clinic website, and insurance directory) were both used and perceived to be important by patients of the dental school faculty practice. Dental schools and dentists can use this study's findings to select appropriate communication channels to promote their practices and to focus on attributes that dental consumers value the most.