Psychological Factors Determining Prognosis of Dental Treatments.

Many psychological factors may have a significant bearing on an individual's oral health and success of dental treatments. Overall, these factors may result in the avoidance of dental visits, emergency-based dental appointments, noncompliant dental behavior, the utilization of multiple oral health care providers, and poor oral health. These factors may affect the quality of life of individuals and may lead to patient dissatisfaction, poor prognosis, and failure of dental treatment. Multiple psychological factors may affect the dentist and the patient. Those factors may alter the prognosis for successful dental treatment. Physician empathy is fundamental in developing long-term physician-patient trust.