Patients' experience of partial tooth loss and expectations to treatment: a qualitative study in Danish and Swedish patients
2016 (English)In: Journal of Oral Rehabilitation, E-ISSN 1365-2842, Vol. 43, no 3, p. 180-189Article in journal (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Knowledge of impairments, wishes and expectations is essential to make correct decisions regarding oral rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to investigate discomforts, wishes and expectations in patients' with partial edentulism before entering oral rehabilitation. In Copenhagen, Denmark, and Malmo, Sweden, respectively, 20 patients with partial edentulism seeking rehabilitation were interviewed in a semistructured qualitative manner. The interviews were transcribed and analysed yielding overall domains. Six themes appeared as overall domains: (i) experienced impairments, (ii) experienced social awareness, (iii) expectation to treatment, (iv) expectation to durability/survival, (v) coping strategies dealing with the tooth loss including explanations of the tooth loss and (vi) modifications to experienced impairment. The impairments were mostly experienced as problems in social settings. Most participants expressed a simple wish to function normally; a fixed solution was preferred. Many Danish participants accepted a removable solution whereas only few Swedish participants did so. The domains coping strategies' and modifications' were not part of the chosen topics of interest, indicating a high wish of the participants to explain their tooth loss and how they coped with it. In conclusion, a large degree of social impairment was found in the patient group along with several coping strategies. The impairments were modified by a number of factors indicating that highly individualised care and treatment is needed. A state of normality was described as the primary treatment wish with a higher acceptance of removable solutions in Denmark than in Sweden. For final decision-making, surrounding factors seemed to influence the patients' choices.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Blackwell Munksgaard, 2016. Vol. 43, no 3, p. 180-189
Keywords [en]
tooth loss, qualitative research, decision-making, rehabilitation, health expenditures, quality of life
National Category
Dentistry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-6480DOI: 10.1111/joor.12355ISI: 000370488000004PubMedID: 26426127Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84957956957Local ID: 22929OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-6480DiVA, id: diva2:1403423
2020-02-282020-02-282024-06-18Bibliographically approved