Patients' perceptions of dental care provided by students at a Colombian public university

The objective of the study was to know the perception of patients of the dental care offered by students. A longitudinal descriptive study was carried out in 123 patient-student binomials in a dental school of a Colombian public university, to which a questionnaire was applied to investigate sociodemographic variables, dental care and factors related to the patient's perception: Personal presentation of the student, student-patient interaction and student-patient knowledge transmission during two moments of the attention: at the beginning (T0) and after two months (T1). Differences were found between T0 and T1 with an increase between the frequencies related to dental care; the student-patient interaction factor was the most influential. As the semester elapses and according to the student's sex, the perception behaves better in T1 of the dental care offered. It is concluded that the perception of patients regarding the dental care offered by students is influenced by student's own factors such as sex and semester, directly reflecting on the student-patient interaction that leads to satisfaction of the care received and successes in dental treatments performed.