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- Title
Assessing dental clients' perceptions of dental hygienists with visible tattoos.
- Authors
Verissimo, Amanda; Tolle, Susan Lynn; McCombs, Gayle; Arndt, Aaron
- Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if visible tattoos affected dental clients’ perceptions of dental hygienists. Methods: A survey was administered online to 203 subjects via a commercial web source. Participants viewed 1 of 3 photographs of a dental hygiene model wearing short-sleeved scrubs without a tattoo, with a small tattoo on the wrist or with a large sleeve tattoo on the arm. Respondents rated the professionalism of the dental hygiene model based on appearance and also indicated their willingness to use the dental hygienist’s practice regularly. Finally, participants indicated whether or not they had tattoos. Results: The large tattoo negatively influenced perceptions of the dental hygienist’s professionalism compared to no tattoo or a small tattoo. However, the dental hygienist with the small tattoo was not rated lower on professionalism. Furthermore, respondents with and without tattoos had a lower willingness to use the dental practice when the dental hygienist had a large tattoo. Although respondents with tattoos did not feel the dental hygienist with the small tattoo appeared to be more professional, they did have a greater intention to use the dental practice itself compared to respondents without tattoos. Conclusions: Large visible tattoos are perceived negatively by dental clients, with and without tattoos. Therefore, having a large visible tattoo may hinder clients’ positive perceptions of the dental hygienist and puts the dental hygienist at risk of being negatively perceived by clients in the dental practice setting. While dental clients have a lower intention to use dental practices that employ dental hygienists with large tattoos, they are far more tolerant of small visible tattoos, particularly if they have tattoos themselves. Hence, it may be unnecessary for dental practices to adopt a “no visible tattoo” policy and instead to consider tattoos on a case-by-case basis.
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Dental Hygiene, 2016, Vol 50, Issue 3, p109
- ISSN
1712-171X
- Publication type
Academic Journal