Dental Students' and Faculty Members' Concepts and Emotions Associated with a Caries Risk Assessment Program

The objective of this study was to identify concepts and emotions associated with using an established Caries Risk Assessment (CRA) and Caries Risk Management (CRM) program in a dental school. Five focus groups with students and faculty members were conducted. Transcripts of the focus group discussions were qualitatively analyzed for emotions, using Plutchik's wheel of emotions, and were inductively evaluated for concepts (stability coefficients, Scott's pi, 0.65-0.71). A total of twenty-five students took part in three focus groups (D2, D3, and D4 separately), and fifteen faculty members participated in two groups. Few frequency differences existed across students and faculty in terms of emotions (278 in faculty members' discourse; 276 in students'). From these, 535 concepts were assembled in seven groups of semantically distinct concepts. Faculty members verbalized more numerous concepts than students (300 vs. 235). Skepticism about the effectiveness of the CRA/CRM program represented the most significant barrier to comprehensive student and faculty support. The findings also suggested that, in order to dispel misconceptions, clearer messages, simpler forms and systems, and better tailored foci of the program for diverse patient, student, and faculty subgroups are needed. Ultimately, buy-in from users depends on CRA forms and programs that are seen as relevant, useful, and simple, offering tangible outcomes for patients and clinicians.