Understanding the Lived Experience of North American Dental Patients With a Single-Tooth Implant in the Upper Front Region of the Mouth: Protocol for a Qualitative Study

Abstract

Background Assessment of the subjective experiences of individuals with maxillary anterior (ie, the upper front region of the mouth) single-tooth implants is limited mainly to quantitative measurements of satisfaction with appearance. Interestingly, there is unexplained variability in the relationship between satisfaction and appearance. Objective This qualitative study protocol aims to explore and better understand the satisfaction with appearance and function in a Canadian population with maxillary anterior single-tooth implants treated at a postgraduate university clinic. Thus, we aim to obtain diversity among participants relating to the identification of esthetically pleasing and displeasing cases from a clinician perspective. Methods A qualitative research design using interpretative phenomenology analysis (IPA) will provide an adaptable inductive research approach. The participants will be recruited, and consent documents, photographs, digital intraoral scans, and self-administered questionnaire responses will be obtained from them. The transcribed verbatim data from audio-recorded, in-depth, semistructured, one-to-one interviews of the participants will be managed, coded, and analyzed thematically with computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software. The IPA will consider the COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative (COREQ) guidelines when applicable. Results For the qualitative interview, we plan to include at least eight patients to conduct up to 1.5 hours of open-ended interviews with each participant aided by an interview guide. Ethical approval was granted by the University of British Columbia Behavioral Research Ethics Board (H19-00107) in May 2019. Two American dental foundations funded this study. Conclusions The analysis in this study will elucidate the aspects (including their value) that influence participant satisfaction at different dental implant treatment stages. This will be the first qualitative study on this group of the population to explore and obtain a better understanding of their satisfaction with appearance and function, as well as any other patient-reported outcome measures that could be identified. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/25767

Pre-clinical undergraduate students’ perspectives on the adoption of virtual and augmented reality to their dental learning experience: A one-group pre- and post-test design protocol

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Canadian Dental Patients with a Single-Unit Implant-Supported Restoration in the Aesthetic Region of the Mouth: Qualitative and Quantitative Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)

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“…The dataset in this research article contains the data from nine (55.6% men) adult patients who had a missing tooth replaced with a single crown supported by an osseointegrated titanium implant performed by postgraduate students from the Periodontology and Prosthodontology departments at a Canadian educational institution. The number of included participants was aligned with the estimation stipulated in the study protocol [6], which was based on achieving the research data saturation of previous qualitative studies, including between six and twelve individual interviews [1,[7][8][9][10].…”

“…The primary data collected for this research project were qualitative participant perceptions gathered through semi-structured, one-to-one, in-depth interviews with each participant, using an interview guide based on open-ended questions [6], guided by the literature [14][15][16][17][18] on the subject and the research question. The interview guide consisted of six sections: introductory background questions (icebreakers); patients' overall satisfaction with their implant tooth, the appearance of their implant tooth, the function and social experiences relating to their implant-tooth; as well as any other important experiences which affected their satisfaction with their implant tooth, such as complications, maintenance, financial aspects, and surgical aspects of the implant tooth treatment.…”