Differences in Perception of Quality Dental Job Conditions and Job Satisfaction between Dentists and Dental Hygienists

Background: This study aims to investigate the perceptions of dentists and dental hygienists regarding quality dental job conditions and to identify differences in perceptions based on job type. Methods: As a result of conducting face-to-face and online surveys, data from a total of 132 people were analyzed. In order to investigate the perception of quality job conditions, the importance of a total of 13 items was investigated, and the work policies and job satisfaction of the current workplace were examined. Since the data did not follow a normal distribution, a non-parametric test, the Mann–Whitney U test, was performed. Results: Both dentists and dental hygienists perceived income and working hours to be of priority importance for quality job conditions. Dental hygienists valued holiday support and welfare, human relations, and personal development potential more than dentists (p＜0.05). Looking at differences by job type, dental hygienists rated all conditions as more important than dentists except income, indicating a statistically significant difference (p＜0.05). In terms of the work policies, 96.2% of the practices in the study were required to have the four types of social security contributions, but fewer had flexible working hours (19.7%), healthcare support (23.5%), and incentives (25.0%). Of the participants, 60.6% had parental leave available at their workplace, and dental hygienists had statistically significantly higher job satisfaction when parental leave was available (2.57 points) than when it was not (p＜0.05). Conclusion: Quality dental jobs are an important factor in keeping workers happy and maintaining an efficient practice. Dental practice owners need to pay attention to the quality of jobs required by the dental workforce, provide flexible working hours and welfare programs such as parental leave, and create a workplace atmosphere and human resource management system that supports the use of these programs.