An analysis of Turkish oral healthcare system :|patients' perceptions and treatment pathways

Abstract

Universal Health Coverage (UHC), as a globally set policy target in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, offers a unique opportunity for countries to make their healthcare systems more inclusive. However, oral healthcare provision and financial protection in oral healthcare have not been adequately addressed in the literature on UHC, despite its significance for health outcomes. Against this background, this thesis examines patient perceptions and treatment pathways in oral healthcare in the case of Turkey — a country that has achieved UHC and has taken steps to make oral healthcare more accessible in the recent years. In this context, this thesis explores the way the Turkish oral healthcare system shapes patient pathways to diagnosis and treatment. It relies on an explanatory qualitative study that includes 19 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted in April 2021 with dental patients from a public and a private dental clinic in one neighbourhood in Istanbul. The thematic analysis reveals that four major factors have a significant impact on shaping the dental patients’ pathway towards diagnosis and treatment: Dentist stability, perceived dentist responsiveness to patient preferences, medical care costs, and waiting time. Based on these factors, this thesis identifies two distinct patient pathways that the Turkish oral healthcare system has: Shortcut and undefined pathways. Patients willing and able to purchase private services have a direct and fast access (shortcut pathway), whereas patients relying on the General Health Insurance have an unpredictable and meandering one (undefined pathway).