Affordability versus willingness for dental treatment-A survey

Financial barriers are an important reason for not being able to see a dentist. Still, lack of information and awareness about dental treatment acts as a barrier in getting quality dental treatment even among inancially strong individuals in our country. This study aimed to analyze the awareness about dental treatments and willingness to spend on dental treatment among patients as an important factor in determining the treatment plan. A structured questionnaire was framed to evaluate the buying capacity of individuals towards comfort and gadgets and their buying capacity when it comes to dental treatment, and the responses were collected using an online surveying tool. Only 20% visit the dentist on a periodic basis for checkups, and the other 80% wereunaware of the concept of regular dental checkups andvisited thedentist only when they had dental complaints. 45% visited dentist only after getting pain.33% received illings and root canal. Of the 25%who underwent extraction only 10% replaced the extracted teeth.20% only received consultation and medications and didn’t turn up for other treatments. Even when the dentist offered different treatment plans, 46% of the patients chose the cheaper option. 76.3% of the surveyed people had health insurance and among them, and 36.3% were not aware of the fact whether their health insurance covers their dental treatment. People aremorewilling to spend for gadgets and comfort than the basic dental needs. Most of them are unaware of the fact about regular dental visits and visit the dentist only on getting pain or other severe problems and show negligence towards spending for other crucial treatments even when the dentist educates them about the need for the treatment.

Affordability, insurance, dental, spending ABSTRACT Financial barriers are an important reason for not being able to see a dentist. Still, lack of information and awareness about dental treatment acts as a barrier in getting quality dental treatment even among inancially strong individuals in our country. This study aimed to analyze the awareness about dental treatments and willingness to spend on dental treatment among patients as an important factor in determining the treatment plan. A structured questionnaire was framed to evaluate the buying capacity of individuals towards comfort and gadgets and their buying capacity when it comes to dental treatment, and the responses were collected using an online surveying tool. Only 20% visit the dentist on a periodic basis for checkups, and the other 80% were unaware of the concept of regular dental checkups and visited the dentist only when they had dental complaints. 45% visited dentist only after getting pain.33% received illings and root canal. Of the 25% who underwent extraction only 10% replaced the extracted teeth.20% only received consultation and medications and didn't turn up for other treatments. Even when the dentist offered different treatment plans, 46% of the patients chose the cheaper option. 76.3% of the surveyed people had health insurance and among them, and 36.3% were not aware of the fact whether their health insurance covers their dental treatment. People are more willing to spend for gadgets and comfort than the basic dental needs. Most of them are unaware of the fact about regular dental visits and visit the dentist only on getting pain or other severe problems and show negligence towards spending for other crucial treatments even when the dentist educates them about the need for the treatment.

INTRODUCTION
Financial barriers are a signi icant purpose behind not having the option to see a dentist. Absence of inspiration towards oral health and dental techniques and the absence of mindfulness about dental insurance is making the patients show carelessness towards dental medicines. Patients visiting the dental specialists favour getting treatment just for their central issue and abstain from accepting further follow up medicines much after appropriate instruction about dental medicines by their dental specialists (Guay, 2004).
Some health insurance designs in India do cover dental medicines as a piece of their clinical insurance spread (Shigli et al., 2007). There are numerous investigations that attention on the openness of dental medicines in Low salary individuals, however, the absence of data and mindfulness about dental treatment goes about as a boundary in get-ting quality dental treatment even among inancially resilient people in our nation. (Toor and Jindal, 2011)This survey focuses on patients who can afford the treatment and assessing their attitude towards receiving high-quality dental treatments.

Aim
The aim of this study was to analyze the awareness about dental treatments and willingness to spend on dental treatment among patients as an important factor in determining the treatment plan.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A specially designed questionnaire was distributed using a web designed program. The questionnaire was designed with a total of 18 questions containing three groups the irst group of questions focus mainly in assessing the socioeconomic status of the patients and the next group of questions about their previous dental experiences and the inal set of questions were directed towards dental treatment fares and dental insurances. The data was collected from the web survey, and the results were tabulated using Google sheets and analyzed in SPSS software.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
84% of the patients in the survey used smartphones [ Figure 1], and 38% of the patient's family more than three members were using smart phones [Figure 2], and majority spend less than 1000 rupees per month on mobile phone bills [ Figure 3]. 76% of the people prefer a car for travelling with family [ Figure 4]. Whereas only 20% visit the dentist on a periodic basis for checkups and the other 80% were unaware of the concept of regular dental checkups and visited the dentist only when they had dental complaints [ Figure 5].
45% visited dentist only after getting pain.33% received illings and root canal.
Of the 25% who underwent extraction only 10% replaced the extracted teeth.20% only received consultation and medications and didn't turn up for other treatments [ Figure 6]. Even when the dentist offered different treatment plans, 46% of the patients chose the cheaper option. [ Figure 7].76.3% of the surveyed people had health insurance and among them [ Figure 8] and 36.3% were not aware of the fact whether their health insurance covers their dental treatment. [ Figure 9] There are numerous articles expressing the association between inancial status and dental consideration openness. Factors, for example, monetary status, cost of the treatment, dental tension, past dental encounters go about as barriers in accepting dental treatment (Locker et al., 2011;Toor and Jindal, 2011) Training assumed a signi icant job in guiding the individuals to improve dental treatment (Dehmoobadsharifabadi et al., 2018). Patients with occupied ways of life will, in general use crisis administrations or postpone dental treatment. As per the study that we led, there were 32% of the patients who detailed maintained a strategic distance from certain dental methodology as they were tedious. (Teusner et al., 2013) Dental Expenses in low pay individuals is viewed as an unreasonably expensive extravagance and is low on the rundown of needs when contrasted with other basic products (Horner-Johnson and Dobbertin, 2016). The consequences of our examination propose that individuals favour spending on advanced mobile phones, devices and other relaxation exercises instead of spending on dental medicines. Despite the fact that the patients are inancially steady, the vast majority of them are reluctant towards costly dental medicines that are smarter to the treatment they select. Accessibility of Dental insurance may enable the patients to choose a superior treatment choice. (Naavaal et al., 2017) Individual inancial position, salary and training assume a signi icant job in deciding the Dental treatment (Muirhead et al., 2009). Despite the fact that similar conditions apply to the Indian Population, there is a signi icant level of carelessness of high inancial status patients towards dental consideration in optional dental medicines like prosthesis.
As per (Toor and Jindal, 2011) even with the approach of the 21st century, the dental insurance stays unexplored and insigni icant. Being a nation with the world's second-biggest populace, there is a tremendous prerequisite for outside cooperation in the ield of dental insurance. In our investigation, also 80% of the individuals either don't have dental insurance, or they don't know whether their health insurance covers dental medicines. There isn't a lot of advancements about dental insurance neither from the insurance organizations nor from the dentists. Indian dental insurance plans are of two kinds: Stand-alone dental insurance or health insurance covering dental medicines (Locker et al., 2011;Toor and Jindal, 2011). Most of the dental plans spread just chosen analytic administrations and crisis treatment.
The carelessness of patients towards top-notch dental treatment must be tended to. Improving and advocating Dental insurance plans will likewise assist this with issuing undeniably (Baldani et al., 2011). In India, there are just scarcely any insurance plans exist that give dental treatment inclusion and added to that there are numerous systems that are barred from the extent of inclusion. Most the dental insurance plans incorporate just dental costs caused because of a mishap. Just a few fresher health insurance plans are intended to cover all dental expenses. If the patients become mindful about the dental insurance plans, they will come to think about the signi icance of keeping up oral health and will be progressively open towards dental medicines.

CONCLUSIONS
People are more willing to spend for gadgets and comfort than the basic dental needs. Most of them are unaware of regular dental visits. They visit the dentist only on getting pain or other severe problems. Once the primary concern is treated, they show negligence towards spending for other crucial treatments even when the dentist educates them about the need for the treatment.