Dental School Patient Preferences for Receiving and Returning Patient Satisfaction Surveys

The aims of this study were to investigate dental school patient, parent, and caregiver preferences for receiving and returning patient satisfaction surveys and to determine how modes of receiving and returning surveys impacted return rates. Two studies were conducted, both of which are reported. In Study 1, adult patients, parents of child patients, and caregivers of patients with special needs were asked to indicate their preferred mode of receiving and returning surveys. In Study 2, patients, parents, and caregivers were randomly assigned to different modes of receiving and returning surveys, and return rates were compared between modes and according to whether the individuals had been assigned to their preferred mode or not. The overall response rates were 90.4% for the first study and 48.1% for the second study. In both studies, the preferred mode was receiving and returning the survey in the clinic (chi-square=84.902 and 32.116; df=3; p