Survey of “Dentists and Advertising” Reveals Need for Regulation Improvement

Thailand: The Dental Council of Thailand has conducted a survey to obtain opinions from its members on improving regulations related to advertising in dentistry. 

The survey was conducted by the Public Relations and Communications department of the Council, aiming to raise awareness of the ethical issues involved with advertising in dentistry and to make the regulations more suitable for the current era. The survey collected data on personal information, opinions on advertising practices in various formats, and the philosophy of professional ethics related to advertising, among other things.

Methodology and Results

The survey was conducted on SurveyMonkey between November 20-30, 2022, and received 670 responses out of 766 surveys submitted, with over 40% of respondents being dentists aged 31-40. The results showed that dentists generally disapprove of advertising practices that focus on price or promotion, while they approve of educational content and using testimonials. There were no significant differences in opinions between age groups, indicating consistency across all age groups.

However, the survey revealed some issues that differ significantly between age groups or are statistically significant (p<0.05). Older dentists do not agree with advertising in their profession, believing that it is unethical and makes dentistry more business-oriented, while younger dentists find the regulations not socially and economically relevant.

Proposed Regulation Improvements

More than 80% of dentists in the survey want to see improvements in the regulations. A proposal for legal reform suggests that dentists should be able to provide information about dental products, but they should not make the public believe that they support a specific product. 

The majority of dentists (60% and above) propose that legal reform should allow dentists to expand their advertising activities and to provide more information than is currently allowed. The proposal also calls for transparency of information publicly announcing the relationship between dentists and the products.

Click here to read more on the survey.