Dental Economics - Should This Be Included as a Chapter in Dentistry as Modification in Curriculum Design - A Questionnaire Based Survey Study

ABSTRACT

Dental Economics is the discipline of economics applied to the topic of oral health care and addresses the perceptive of planning, budgeting and monitoring the economic evaluation relating to the cost and benefits of alternative ways of delivering oral health care. The Dental Practioners, once they are out in a competitive Clinical World who opt for clinical set up, need to focus on growing their practices, thus maintaining a competitive edge. We wanted to assess the knowledge and attitude of dental students about business in dentistry and also about Black Book among dental students. MethodsAn interventional cross-sectional descriptive baseline KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practice) study was conducted among 250 dental students from Western Maharashtra between May 2016 and July 2016. Pre- / post-test questionnaires applying open ended and close ended questions were designed and validated. A brief power point presentation on dental economics and introduction to the Black Book – Financial 2011 Business in Dentistry was presented. The Pre / Post data was collected and subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS version 10. Results77.9 % - 88 % participants in pre-test said that they had not been taught about the art of setting up a clinic; whereas, the ratio increased to 98 % after the intervention and post-test. This indicated that the lack of knowledge about how to set up a clinic can be one of the reasons for poor satisfaction among dentists in India. ConclusionsHence, introduction of such topic in the curriculum can further improvise on earning and in turn improve the dentist satisfaction. This baseline KAP study reinforces the need to consider the business side of dental practice, in particular, the importance of quality, creativity and innovation, alongside the importance of meeting the needs of patients.