Dental Consumer's Perceptions of Dental Hygienists with Visible Tattoos.

Problem: One in five United States adults have a tattoo and negative stereotyping of individuals displaying tattoos is a well-documented cultural norm. The growing trend of body art is regarded as the right of self-expression, with 4 out of 10 young people having a tattoo, yet the conflict between self-expression and professionalism in health care and dentistry exists. Objective: The purpose of this study was to survey dental patients in the United States to assess their perceptions of dental hygienists with visible tattoos. Methodology: An 11 item investigator-designed survey was administered online via a commercial web based software company (www.surveymonkey. com) to adult members of Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (https://www.mturk.com/mturk). The survey was made available to United States MTurk members based on three qualifiers: English speaking, at least 18 years of age, and have visited a dentist within the last 60 months. Respondents received a nominal fee to complete the survey (50 cents). Two hundred and three acceptable electronic surveys were completed and returned by dental consumers in two hours. Surveys were randomized according to respondents' birth month. Participants viewed one of three photographs of the same dental hygiene model wearing short sleeved scrubs without a tattoo, a small tattoo on the hand or a large sleeve tattoo on the arm. Participants scored each photograph on a 5-point Likert scale regarding how ethical, responsible, hygienic, competent and professional the individual in the photograph appeared. Completed surveys were analyzed for response frequency. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the means for each of the tattoo conditions. If significant interactions occurred, Tukey's post hoc test were used to locate significant differences. Independent Samples T Test were also used to compare differences by age and gender. Significance was set at the .05 level. Results: Most respondents (88%) in the no tattoo group rated the model as professional, although, only 49% of respondents rated the model with the sleeve tattoo as professional. Overall results reveal respondents rated all five attributes higher for the dental hygienist with no tattoos (M=4.28), and lowest for the sleeve tattoo (M=3.55) model. When comparing the three groups, respondents are less likely to use a dental office where the dental hygienist has a sleeve tattoo (p = .000) and are more likely to refer others to a dental office where the dental hygienist has no tattoos (p = .000). Whether a participant has a tattoo had no significant effect on overall attribute mean scores. The sleeve tattoo model was scored significantly lower in the over forty age group (p = .019). Gender had minimal effects on results, although females respondents are more likely to refer others to a dental office if the dental hygienist has a small tattoo (p = .029). Conclusions: Results suggest small tattoos are perceived by dental consumer as acceptable in the clinical setting; however, the larger sleeve tattoos are less accepted by dental consumers. These findings provide evidenced based information on visible tattoos that educators can use when making decisions about appearance and dress code policies, and provide insight for educators preparing individuals to enter the workforce as they contemplate decisions about obtaining body art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]