Objective:
To determine the attitudes of dental practitioners in the hong kong special administrative region (sar) of the peoples' republic of china towards advertising of dental services by members of the profession, a practice that is currently not permitted by legislation.
Design:
Self-completion questionnaires were mailed to 400 members of the hong kong dental association. in addition to being presented with a number of closed questions, respondents were invited to expand on their answers in a more qualitative, open-ended manner.
Results:
271 replies were received, representing a response rate of 68%. respondents were largely against a move towards any deregulation which would result in dentists being allowed to advertise their services in the sar (57.9% against, 28.0% for), this despite a high proportion of respondents reporting that, in their opinion, the hong kong public do not know enough about the services provided by dentists in the sar (69.7%).
Conclusions:
Opinions amongst hong kong dentists are divided with a majority feeling that a move to allow advertising would not benefit either the public or the profession. there is, however, a significant proportion of dentists who feel that there is a need for such deregulation.