Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
School of Rehabilitation, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Gerodontology. 2023 Jun;40(2):231-237. doi: 10.1111/ger.12646. Epub 2022 Jul 14.
People with impaired mobility face difficulty accessing dental care. One solution is portable dentistry, which includes delivering dental care in homes or residential institutions. Dentists, however, appear reluctant to offer such services. Our objective was to understand how dentists perceived portable dentistry and potential challenges to its implementation.
We conducted a qualitative descriptive study based on semi-structured interviews with a sample of dentists in Quebec, Canada. We employed a combination of maximum variation and snowball sampling strategies to recruit 14 participants. The interviews were conducted and audio-recorded through Zoom and lasted approximately 40 minutes. After transcribing them, we performed a thematic analysis with a combination of inductive and deductive coding.
Despite perceiving portable dentistry as a valuable practice model, participants showed little interest in adopting this approach, arguing it was not every dentist's "job" to provide portable services. They believed portable dentistry must be financially burdensome and difficult to integrate into their daily work due to lack of time and portable equipment. Accordingly, participants considered it was the duty of governments, professional organisations overseeing dentistry education and practice, and dental schools to develop portable dentistry programs and hire dentists to deliver such services.
To promote portable dentistry, it may be necessary to improve the knowledge and competencies of dentists, but also to challenge their professional identity as well as the current model of dental clinics as the standard of care delivery. To achieve this, we need strong leadership from dental schools, professional organisations and government.
行动不便的人在获取牙科护理方面存在困难。一种解决方案是便携式牙科，包括在家庭或住宅机构中提供牙科护理。然而，牙医似乎不愿意提供此类服务。我们的目的是了解牙医如何看待便携式牙科以及实施该服务的潜在挑战。
我们在加拿大魁北克省进行了一项基于半结构式访谈的定性描述性研究，对一组牙医进行了抽样调查。我们采用最大变异和滚雪球抽样策略相结合的方式招募了 14 名参与者。访谈通过 Zoom 进行并录音，持续约 40 分钟。转录后，我们采用归纳和演绎相结合的方法进行主题分析。
尽管参与者认为便携式牙科是一种有价值的实践模式，但他们对采用这种方法几乎没有兴趣，认为提供便携式服务不是每个牙医的“工作”。他们认为便携式牙科必须是经济负担沉重且难以融入他们的日常工作，因为缺乏时间和便携式设备。因此，参与者认为发展便携式牙科计划和聘请牙医提供此类服务是政府、监督牙科教育和实践的专业组织以及牙科学院的责任。
为了促进便携式牙科，可能有必要提高牙医的知识和技能，但也需要挑战他们的职业身份以及牙科诊所作为护理提供标准的现行模式。为此，我们需要牙科学院、专业组织和政府的强有力领导。
