Needs assessment and research priorities in the oral and dental health with health promotion approach in Iran

Today, the scope of dental activities is a broad range from the needs assessment for epidemiological studies to the implementation of comprehensive programs for the prevention of oral diseases at various levels of the society. This study aimed to identify and prioritize the need researches in the field of oral and dental health in a dental hospital in Tehran, Iran.

This applied research was a mixed methods study carried out in Tehran, Iran, in 2018. The data gathering tool included a data collection form used for reviewing the documents, a semi‑structured interview, and an open questionnaire. MAXQDA 10.0, Expert Choice 11.0, and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) software were used for analyzing the collected data.

After analyzing the results of the qualitative phase, 171 research topics in 6 areas were obtained, including 44 topics in “dental clinical care and treatment,” 37 topics in “health and prevention,” 19 topics in “education and health promotion,” 37 topics in “management of dental care delivery,” 16 topics in “policy and its requirements,” and 18 topics in “dentistry materials, equipment and technologies.”

According to the results, it can be recommended that the research resources should be allocated based on the priorities identified by the present study so that the studied hospital has the highest dynamic performance in achieving its goals and objectives.