الفهرس 
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Abstract
Patients’ satisfaction can be defined as a set of attitudes and perceptions of patients towards health services. A comparison between previous expectation and experiences of the current service can determine patients’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Patient satisfaction is a multifactorial concept. It does not only reflect the quality of dental service but also involves intellectual, emotional as well as psychological factors, previous experience and patients’ expectations.
Patient satisfaction is an outcome measure. Therefore, it is now considered as an important tool in measuring the service quality. This study aimed to assess patients’ satisfaction with the services delivered in the outpatient clinics in the Faculty of Dentistry (FOD) in Alexandria. A pilot study was conducted and a specially designed questionnaire was assessed for its validity and relibility. A proportional allocation sample was selected. Seven hundred and fifty patients were interviewed by the same interviewer in the waiting rooms of the different clinical departments over a period of 6 months. The questionnaire collected information on certain variables as sociodemographic data, self rated oral health and dental anxiety,reason for seeking the FOD, previous dental experience outside the faculty, some characteristic of their treatig dentist and type of current service as well as self reported compliance with the follow up appointment and dentist’s instructions . Patients’ preference for a dentist’s gender and nationality were also assessed.
Patients’ satisfaction was investigated through asking the patients to rate their satisfaction with the different domains of dental service including access to it, physical structure, quality of care, professional ethicsand interpersonal communication as well as rating their general satisfaction with the dental service. Each item was assessed using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1“highly dissatisfied” to 5“highly satisfied.
Data were tabulated and descriptive statistics were performed with graphical presentation. Statistical analysis revealed that the highest mean satisfaction score was related to “Dentist respect and acceptance”, while the lowest mean satisfaction score was related to “Referral system to dentist.” The mean of the overall satisfaction score percentage for the whole questionnaire was calculated and was found to be 91.54 % that reflects high satisfaction level.
Bivariate analysis was conducted. Variables that showed a statistically significant association with the overall satisfaction were entered into multivariate analysis. Patients who were young, single and had a university degree were significantly less satisfied. Moreover, self-rating oral health as fair or poor, being treated by interns, undergoing orthodontic treatment and preference of non-Egyptian dentists were significantly associated with lower satisfaction.
Based on the study results, periodical surveys on patients’ satisfaction in the FOD are recommended and should be used in the evaluation and monitoring of service.