Can we measure patients' perception during dental impressions? The Burdens in Dental Impression-Making Questionnaire - BiDIM-Q

PURPOSE: To develop a reliable and valid instrument for the comprehensive assessment of patients' burdens during dental impression making, the Burdens in Dental Impression Making Questionnaire, BiDIM-Q.

MATERIALS: The item pool was generated in a convenience sample of 20 prosthodontic patients using semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The final instrument was tested in 145 consecutively recruited patients, and psychometric properties of the BiDIM-Q were determined. Four different impression materials were used according to the manufacturers' instructions and indications: alginate, c-silicone, polyvinylsiloxane, and polyether.

RESULTS: The final BiDIM-Q consisting of 12 items showed sufficient reliability, indicated by Cronbach's alpha of .82 and an average inter-item correlation of .29. Validity was supported by Pearson correlation coefficients for the correlation between the instrument's total score with the patients' overall satisfaction rating (r=.63), and by the correlation matrix for the correlations of the patients' perceptions with the practitioners' satisfaction ratings. Overall, patient perceived burdens were low with highest burdens observed when using polyether in partially dentate patients for pick-up impressions, while lowest burdens were reported when using c-silicone for impressions of edentulous jaws.

CONCLUSION: The BiDIM-Q is a reliable and valid tool for assessing patient-based process-related quality of care in dentistry allowing a deeper insight into patients' perspective during dental impression making.