Dentist’s Experiences and Expectations of Pharmacists in Saudi Arabia

Objectives: To declare the dentist’s experiences and expectations of pharmacists in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: It is a 4-month cross-sectional study about dentist’s experiences and expectations of pharmacists in Saudi Arabia. It self-administered validated electronic survey with closed-ended questions, and the 5-point Likert response scale system was used. The survey consisted of demographic data of responders and items about dentists’ perception of pharmacists’ actual experiences, pharmacists’ recent experiences, future expectations of pharmacists, and barriers hiding the pharmacist role in the practice. Results: The total number of dentist’s responders were 398 dentists. Of those, 205(51.51%) were male, and 193 (48.49%) were female. Most participants were 229(57.54%) general practitioners and 75(18.61%) residents. Many dentists contacted pharmacist for drug availability inquiries 311(79,13%) and drug-drug interactions questions 265(68.65%). The average scores of dentist’s actual experiences of pharmacists were (3.12), the average scores of dentist’s current expectations of pharmacists were (3.6), and dentist’s future expectations of pharmacists were (3.52). Conclusion: Dentist experience and expectations of pharmacists were inadequate in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Targeting pharmacists’ awareness of pharmacists in the dental care and collaboration programs and activities or therapeutic guidelines between dentists and pharmacists are required.