Review of Related Literature

This research focuses on the barriers of Gender Stereotypes on Dentist Efficacy.

The data was analyzed and interpreted using findings from other studies on how the
gender of the dentist affects the patients.This part of the study will discuss the literature
as well as other similar studies. The literature supplied here will help the reader better
understand the study’s topic. In this manner, the researchers obtained some information
and different theories connected to the problem to better understand the differences of
theories of one study. 

International

Women and men are graduating from dentistry school in equal numbers nowadays, but
female dentists earn less  and are less likely to hold leadership roles.  Even during their
schooling days, female students  claim that they are treated differently than male
students and have less confidence in their skills. Not only do they experience this kind
of criticism as professionals, but also when their still in college.(Simon, et al, 2019)

Family, environmental, and cultural factors are challenges to most female dentists.
Interpersonal challenges such as gender discrimination and male dominance where
also some of the factors that were included. As this issue is significant in the field of
dentistry, women should be more recognized with their work.

A study entitled Gender stereotypes in dental care: A cross-sectional Study shows that
Males were described as being decisive and confident in their treatment choice. They
are more less emotional and maintaining expertise, charging a higher fee, appearing
more technically skilled and experienced, where in the other hand, females are more on
spending more time suggesting preventive measures, being concerned about
cleanliness, being more organized, and having better management skills.

Females have been characterized as more caring, submissive and expressive than
males. Other feminine qualities also show that females have a lack of competence in
comparison to males and communication through nonverbal cues. In contrast males
have been characterized as assertive, aggressive, and are more competitive than
women.
 

According to the findings of Puranik, M. & Kumar, A.(2015) The participants preferred
female dentists for their empathetic attitude, for they are more comfortable in sharing
their dental fears and they are reliable in explaining general health and wellbeing. The
study also suggested that male are more successful in achieving dental treatments
base on their mascular attributes.
In Saudi women cover their face with a veil called a hijab, which may affect their
attitudes and choices in selecting a dentist of one gender. The country is said to have
an unequal distribution of male and female dentists , which makes it more challenging to
assess the preference of the patient in choosing the gender of his or her dentist. This
also could lead to a critical factor in life-threatening situations if a patient refuses to be
examined by a health care practitioner because of his or her gender. (Alzahrani, et al.
2020)

A study showed that in Saudi Arabia dentist’s gender did not matter while men favored
male dentists. Moreover, they were also a more popular choice for certain specialty
treatments such as oral surgery, implants, endodontics. Females dominated the
patient’s choice only in the field of pediatric dentistry. (Ivanova, 2019)

An article showed that in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia 75% of the males felt that they
were more capable than females to handle stress and workload associated with
branches such as prosthodontics, surgery, and implantology. Oral surgery (19.1%),
orthodontics (26.8%), and implantology (10.2%) were the fields that attracted most of
them in dentistry. 

In the study of BMC medical education, it shows that many people believe that men
make better natural leaders than women. This may be the basis for the
disproportionately low representation of women in leadership roles.

In the study conducted by Whelton, H. of the Journal of Dental Education it stated that
the proportion of women enrolled in dental schools around the world has increased
dramatically over the past decades. Male supremacy in dental schools has changed to
almost equal numbers of female students in the United States and female
predominance in other nations, including the United Kingdom. This change in the
gender distribution of students has not, however, been reflected by academic leaders.

Women in India progressed a lot in the past 50 years. The time when only men held
leadership roles in the dental and medical fields and in the dental and medical fields and
the women in-charge were looked down upon as anomalies.

According to the the finding of Puranik, M. & Kumar, A. (2015) Gender is a social
construct that describes the roles and behaviors of girls/boys or women and men. It is
now a key predictor of access to all forms of human endeavor, including health care.

In this generation healthcare workers treat male and female patients equally, even if
their needs are different. Patients on the other hand should also have equal preference
for both qualified male and female dentists. Nonetheless, gender preference in the
healthcare setting is not a new concept. 

The dentistry profession's structure gives the opportunity for both men and women to
exert a level of independence while being a healthcare provider.  Both male and female
dentists interact with their patients in different ways, different skills, expertise, attitudes,
modes, and behaviors and that determines the impact of a patient-dentist relationship.
These gender stereotypes can lead to a number of generalizations that influence
patients' perceptions which scientists have investigated the prevalence of gender
stereotypes and applied their findings to healthcare settings.

According to the study of Rajeh, M., et al (2019) interpersonal challenges, such as

gender discrimination and male dominance in the dentistry field, were identified as
additional factors that could influence the participants’ career practice. This was
consistent with previous studies that found that gender discrimination and stereotypes in
dentistry could negatively influence women’s self-realization and inhibit their individual
development.

National 

Many countries, including the Philippines, are predominantly patriarchal which explains
why despite the decade-long efforts of achieving gender equality, society still appears to
be in favor of men. With this challenges women are surrounded by this issue men may
not be subject to restrictions on women's ability to pursue leadership positions or
participate in the workforce.

According to this article, it shows that female examinees scored better than male
examinees in most of the engineering courses. On the other hand, male examinees
fared better than female examinees in medicine, midwifery, nursing, nutrition-diabetics
and social work. 

One of the studies of the Adventist University of the Philippines claim that men have a
higher oral health knowledge score than women, on the other hand women are more
concerned about oral health. Gender differences have no significance in terms of dental
care utilization. 
Gender stereotypes can lead to a variety of generalizations that affect the perceptions
of patients. Existence and consequences of gender stereotypes have been studied by
social scientists and generalized to clinical settings.

The female dentists’ working hours showed a distinct drop as soon as they started a
family. It was also found that women dentists are more likely to take a career break. It is
clear that childrearing and family responsibilities have a great impact on women's
working life. Significant differences between males and females in work title and
specialization were evident in an academic institution.

Results

In the group analyzed, there is no clear preference for either gender among dentists. As
patients' ages decreased, it was found that the percentage of patients who preferred a
particular gender was highest between the ages of 18 and 39. More than half of the
patients, 62.2%, say they would not choose a dentist of a different sex given the choice.
The majority of patients affirmed that both male and female dentists had an equal level
of commitment to their jobs. Although male and female dentists have different technique
styles when it comes to the treatment aspect of dentistry, the outcome is the same. 

Conclusion

There is no particular preference for the dentist’s gender when it comes to their efficacy
in their respective field. The study highlighted how patients perceived each dentist in
terms of their gender and behavior in certain situations. Gender was not an issue for
patients during the treatment process, but it was discovered that patients perceived
certain characteristics as representing specific dentist genders. Patients felt more at
ease when they were treated by a female dentist, but they thought male dentists were
more confident during the procedure. 
 

References

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Carpizo, R. (2018). Gender Differences towards Dental Health Knowledge, Attitude and
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