Peter Ratener

Determinants of the Quality of Restorative Dental Care

This article reports the results of an analysis to determine the relationships between the quality of restorative dental care for 1,466 patients and 9 categories of dentist characteristics for 102 volunteer Washington practitioners. In this study, patients were recalled and restorations were examined clinically. Questionnaires were administered to patients and dentists. The dependent measure is a weighted average of scores for operative dentistry and crown and bridge. Stagewise regression was used to adjust for differences in patient oral health and assessor bias. Models were postulated in each category of dentist characteristics and beta vectors were estimated by multiple regression. The best predictors formed a significant model (p=0.000) which explained 26 per cent of the variance.

Volunteering in Dental Peer Review: Differences Between Volunteers and Practitioners at Large

This report characterizes dzfferences among early and late volunteers, and non-volunteers for personal characteristics and situational determinants of volunteering in an experimental dental peer review study. Differences were found jor volunteers/nonvolunteers for some items representing subject interest, expectation of a favorable evaluation, sociability, and achievement motivation.

Palatal receptor contribution to and effects of palatal alteration on taste acuity thresholds

To determine the contribution of the soft palate to the overall taste mechanism and the effects of palatal compromise (surgery, cleft palate, and trauma), four taste solutions representing sweet, salty, sour, and bitter were applied to the apex and base of the tongue and to the soft palate of 12 subjects in each of the control and palatally compromised groups. Each group was tested on two different occasions with the sessions 2 weeks apart and one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Results indicate that the soft palate contributes to bitter and salty sensations to a greater degree than the other two sensations. Of these two, bitter is the more acutely experienced. Patients with compromised palates revealed higher taste acuity thresholds than the normal control group, particularly with bitter solutions. Taste acuity thresholds increased with age.