Santos PY, Novoa LAM

Language: Spanish
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ABSTRACT

Introduction: Deafness is a neurosensorial disability which causes a public health problem that affects not only the individual who suffers from it, but also his social and family environment.
Objective: To identify the dentists´ perception of dental care they deliver to deaf patients.
Material and methods: A descriptive crosssectional study was conducted, which comprised a sample of 42 dentists aged from 29 to 69 years, of both sexes, who work in the Dental Clinics of the Teaching Polyclinics located in Marianao Municipality, Havana, in June-July, 2016. A survey was made. The variables studied were: age, sex, knowledge about the rules for communication with the deaf patient, knowledge of the possible causes of dissatisfaction of the deaf patients with dental care, recognition of the elements to consider during dental care of the deaf patient, and knowledge of the factors which are capable to generate negative stimuli during the dental care of the deaf patient.
Results: The highest predominance was observed in females (73.8%). The 66.7% of dentists do not know the rules for communication with deaf patients, and the 78.6% of them are unaware of the aspects to keep in mind during the care of the deaf patient. The 100% of the surveyed dentists do not recognize neither the negative stimuli nor the possible causes that lead to dissatisfaction in this population.
Conclusions: Most of the surveyed dentists are female, they do not know neither the communication rules nor the aspects to keep in mind during the care of the deaf patient; whereas the totality of them are unaware of the factors that are capable to generate negative stimuli or the possible causes which lead to dissatisfaction in the attention to these patients.