The Dental Values Scale: development and validation.

The purpose of this study was to produce a valid scale for use in measuring the values of dental students and practitioners--the lack of which has impeded research on professionalism in dentistry. Following standard scale development procedures, we had focus groups of dental practitioners (N=23) develop a ninety-nine-item pool of value terms related to dentistry. Next, Canadian dentists (N=449) rated the relevance of each item through an online survey.