873 questions of Dutch dental patients: a challenge to dental health education.

2000 persons from an a-select sample of the Dutch population were sent a questionnaire in which the most important question was: "Did you have any questions on matters related to dentistry during the past year?" The question was by nature an open question, and the respondents were entitled to several answers. 640 questionnaires were sent back, of which 398 actually provided an answer to the request. Although the request was for questions only, there were also clear expressions of dissatisfaction. A coding system is described that was developed to classify the 873 answers, in which 751 were identified as questions and 122 as complaints. The problems are highly varied as to their contents. Most questions bear on the dentist's activities (35%). Most striking is that these questions can be answered by any dentist. The category on dental minded behavior accounts for 22% of the questions, that on various aspects of the dentist-patient communication and on fear accounts for 17%, and the category on financial problems in dentistry accounts for 16%. Bearing in mind that the composition of the group of 640 respondents differs from that of the entire Dutch population, the results should be interpreted with due care. The discussion includes a plea for more DHE-activities on an individual basis. Finally, it is shown what the use can be of a coding system of questions and complaints of patients in dental health care.