A survey of Hong Kong dentists' attitudes towards advertising

Objective: To determine the attitudes of dental practitioners in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the Peoples' Republic of China towards advertising of dental services by members of the profession, a practice that is currently not permitted by legislation. Design: Self‐completion questionnaires were mailed to 400 members of the Hong Kong Dental Association. In addition to being presented with a number of closed questions, respondents were invited to expand on their answers in a more qualitative, open‐ended manner. Results: 271 replies were received, representing a response rate of 68%. Respondents were largely against a move towards any deregulation which would result in dentists being allowed to advertise their services in the SAR (57.9% against, 28.0% for), this despite a high proportion of respondents reporting that, in their opinion, the Hong Kong public do not know enough about the services provided by dentists in the SAR (69.7%). Conclusions: Opinions amongst Hong Kong dentists are divided with a majority feeling that a move to allow advertising would not benefit either the public or the profession. There is, however, a significant proportion of dentists who feel that there is a need for such deregulation.