We aimed to find factors that affect communication between dentists and pediatric patients and determined the effectiveness of the patients request form designed for specific techniques. First of all, in order to develop a pediatric-focused communication system, we have researched the communication characteristics of pediatric patients through references that have been studied so far and gathered the words considered important that could be said by patients during the treatment. Then, based on results of the reference studies, primary words were drawn from pediatric patients through in-depth interviews. Based on the results of the reference studies, individual in-depth interviews with children were conducted to derive keywords that are actually reported by the patients. The experiment was conducted using independent variables to verify the use of pediatric patients’ requests that affect communication by reflecting the requests from children in a system based on references and individual in-depth interviews with the children. In-depth individual interviews that explore the communication characteristics of pediatric dental patients were conducted on 10 children who have dental experience. The program, which was built and designed based on the communication characteristics of pediatric patients, analyzes the patients’ requests, including the oral hygiene status of the patients collected in real time. Then, the program was designed in a way that it can be offered to the dentist as a report that analyzes the communication characteristics of pediatric patients. It also is provided to pediatric patients as video clips about the treatment information before cure. The actual experiment was conducted with 105 pediatric patients who needed examinations and treatments and measured a relation between applying for requests related to the dental treatment and the satisfaction with the dental treatment. The results supported the hypothesis that program use increases the patients’ request usage and satisfaction. The control group showed a significantly lower request usage rate and satisfaction with dental treatment.
본 연구는 소아치과 환자의 치과 치료에 대한 만족도를 증가시키기 위해, 소아환자와 치과의사의 커뮤니케이션에 영향을 미치는 요소를 탐색하고, 모델을 개발하여 소아치과 환자요청서를 기술적으로 구현하였다. 해당 프로그램 사용이 소아환자의 치과치료 질문 및 응답과 치료만족도에 미치는 영향을 실험을 통해 검증하고자 했다. 프로그램은 실시간으로 수집되는 소아치과 환자의 구강위생상태를 포함한 환자요청서를 분석하며, 분석된 값을 기초로 치과의사에게는 소아환자의 커뮤니케이션 유형을 분석하여 보고서형태로 제공하고, 소아환자에게는 사전의 치료정보를 동영상 형태로 제공하는 방식으로 구현했다. 실제 실험은 통상의 치과 검진 및 치료가 1회 이상 요구되는 환아 105명을 대상으로 실험을 진행했으며, 소아환자의 치과진료 응답률과 치과진료 만족도를 측정하였다. 연구 결과 프로그램을 사용한 실험 집단이 진료 전 치과진료 관련 응답에서 높은 참여율을 보였으며, 치과치료 만족도 역시 통제집단에 비해 높게 나타나 프로그램 사용이 소아환자의 커뮤니케이션을 증가시켜 전체적인 치료만족도가 증가한다는 가설이 입증되었다.
