Ridwaan Omar, BSc, BDS, LDS RCS, MSc, FRACDS, FDS RCSEd
May Al-Kokani, BDS
Lamees Abu Nassif, BDS Nazeer Khan, PhD
College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, KSA

Studies have documented wide variations in the types and volumes of dental services provided by dentists. Such variations in service rates have also been observed across different regions. Besides the numerous patient-related sources of variation, dentist-related factors such as practice patterns and the beliefs and attitudes of dentists, can also affect treatment decisions, and thus service rates. Given its inherent complexity, the provision of prosthodontic services is especially prone to variation. This study used a questionnaire technique to evaluate the dentist-related factors, including social, demographic, work situation and patterns, and prevailing attitudes that may be influential in the reported time spent on prosthodontic treatment among general dentists in Riyadh. Responses to a list of 13 attitude items were analysed using factor analysis, which allowed a reduction of the items to 4 attitudinal factors with a variance explanation of 52%. These 4 variables, together with 9 other variables pertaining to socio-demographic and practice profile aspects, were then set as the independent variables in multiple regression models. The dependent variable was the reported weekly time spent on prosthodontic treatment of patients. Significant associations with increased prosthodontic hours were weekly hours spent on treating adults, nationality, working sector and one of the attitudinal factors which encompassed "technical" aspects. In the gender-based regression models, the one additional significant correlate for males was total weekly working hours. The results suggest that factors other than patient-related ones are also important in the time that general dentists allocate to the provision of prosthodontic services.

Saudi Dental Journal 2003;15(1):2-10.