Date of Award

Fall 2017

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Health Services and Policy Management

First Advisor

M. Mahmud Khan

Abstract

The implant has been around for half a century. It started in Sweden in the 1960s and is now being actively practiced all over the world. It is important to investigate what constitutes a standard for a consumer of medical services in selecting a dentist to receive implants. A great number of dentists and research organizations have published research papers on theory and techniques of implants as well as their strengths and weaknesses. However, researches on reality and satisfaction rate of patients are still very rare.

The purpose of this study was to identify how to improve satisfaction of patients on whom implant operation was operated and to create constant added values for hospital management. Patient satisfaction of dental implant including patient’s satisfaction with the operation, duration of implant operation, and the cost of implant operation were investigated. This study also examined the management aspects such as dental clinic choice motivation of implant operation patients, media and factors affecting choosing dental clinics, and obtaining routes of implant information. To identify perception and status of patients who visit dental clinics and hospitals in Seoul, patients were asked to participate in answering the survey questionnaires.

The majority of patients with dental implant treatment (42.4%) answered that they first learned about dental implant ‘from dentist during dental treatment’, however the majority of patients without dental implant treatment (62.0%) answered that they first learned about dental implant from ‘mass media’. In order to effectively promote dental implants, it is necessary to introduce the implants actively during dental treatment. In addition, mass media promotion may not be very effective in leading patients to receive implant treatment.

When patients choose a dentist or dental clinic, they considered factors in the following order; career and experience of dentist, introduction of acquaintances, regular dentist, proximity to home, moderate dental treatment cost, convenience of traffic and parking, advertisements or internet searching, and others. Therefore, to successfully attract dental implants, it is important to actively promote the dentist's career or experience. In addition, it has been confirmed that lowering the cost of treatment is not the most important factor in determining a dentist. When patients select a dentist/dental clinic for dental implant surgery, they considered factors in the following order; dentist’s career and implant surgery experience, cost of dental implant, referral by acquaintance or neighbor, regular dental clinic/dentist, convenient location and parking, dentist’s educational background, dental clinic facilities, and others. The most important was the experience and experience of the dentist. Over 90% of patients with dental implant answered that they are satisfied on dental implant treatment. The degree of satisfaction with the implants was also very high, and thus promoting the patient's satisfaction with implant satisfaction may not be an effective method.

This study provided basic data for establishing a management strategy to increase the attractiveness of dental clinics and strengthen competitiveness.

Rights

© 2017, Jung Su O

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