Access to oral health care is extremely important for those infected w
ith HIV, because oral findings can lead to early detection and improve
d staging and management of HIV infection. In addition, oral lesions a
ssociated with HIV infection are often debilitating, but cart be manag
ed effectively with proper oral health care. There is ample evidence t
hat dentists have, at times, resisted accepting HIV positive patients
(PHIV+). The intent of the research project described below was to dev
elop and test a model predicting dentists' willingness to treat PHIV+.
Data were collected from a sample of dentists practising in New York
City. The dependent variable was a scale constructed of items measurin
g willingness to treat PHIV+ under varying conditions. Independent var
iables were entered into a multiple linear regression equation in iter
ative attempts to arrive at a model-predicting dentists' willingness t
o treat PHIV+, which was both parsimonious and had explanatory power.
The final model included five independent variables measuring (1) perc
eived safety; (2) willingness to treat homosexuals; (3) perceived ethi
cal obligation to treat PHIV+; (4) past experience; and (5) perceived
norms of colleagues. Perceived safety and perceived norms of colleague
s had by far the most predictive power of all independent variables. R
(2) for the model = 0.58.