Objectives: This paper explores the understanding and practice of patient-centred care (PCC) within dentistry. The aim of the research was to explore the nature of PCC, how PCC is taught and how it is practiced within a dental setting.
Methods: The results of a qualitative, interview-based study of dental professionals working across clinical and teaching positions within a dental school are presented.
Results: Results suggest that a shared understanding of PCC revolves round a basic sense of humanity ('being nice to patients'), giving information that is judged, by the clinician, to be in the patient's best interest and 'allowing' patient choice from a set of choices made available to patients by the clinicians themselves.
Conclusions: This research suggests that significant work is needed if dentists are going to conform to the General Dental Council guidelines on patient-centred practice and a series of recommendations are made to this end.
Keywords: dentistry; patient-centred care.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.