concept of need and demand and its application to dental care for central security soldiers in Alexandria

ABSTRACT

The difference between the physicians perception of need for medical services and that of the client has been discussed by many authors. There is always a certain degree of unrecognized need by the client due to incomplete knowledge of the characteristics of disease. Demand on the other hand, depends on the consumer and is basically an economic concept. This study was carried out with the aim of comparing between dental treatment needs as perceived by the dentist and the patient and clarifying the different barriers to transformation of recognized need into effective demand, as well as determining the effect of presence of a free clinic on the percent of met need and barriers to demand. The study was carried out in the three central security zones in Alexandria, only one of which had a clinic. Results revealed that 81.5% of those clinically assessed to need care recognized the need. However, 53.2% of the dental problems were unrecognized and these were mostly the non-painful conditions. The major bulk of filling need for the total sample was unmet [88.2%]. The zone with a clinic had the highest percent of met need for filling while those without a clinic had the highest percent of met need for extraction probably because they do not seek treatment early. The main barriers to utilization in the zones without a clinic were financial and no time for treatment, while for the zone with a clinic it was fear. Finally, it was recommended that soldiers should be educated about early recognition and treatment of dental problems in addition to performance of initial and annual dental examination, as well as provision of a dental clinic to serve the two zones without one