PTB Reports, Vol 7, Issue 1, Jan-Apr, 2021 9 Research Article PTB Reports Dentist’s Experiences and Expectations of Pharmacists in Saudi Arabia Yousef Alomi 1, * , Critical Care Clinical Pharmacists, TPN Clinical Pharmacist, Freelancer Business, Planner, Content Editor and Data Analyst, Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA. Abdulaziz Al-Humaidan, General Dentist, King Fahad Naval Academy Clinic Jubail, SAUDI ARABIA. Abdullah Alazzam, General Dentist, Government Sector Jeddah, SAUDI ARABIA. Correspondence: Dr. Yousef Ahmed Alomi, BSc. Pharm, MSc. Clin Pharm, BCPS, BCNSP, DiBA, CDE, Critical Care Clinical Pharmacists, TPN Clinical Pharmacist, Freelancer Business, Planner, Content Editor and Data Analyst, P.O.BOX 100, Riyadh-11392, Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA. Phone no: +966 504417712 E-mail: yalomi@gmail.com ABSTRACT 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. Key words: Dentist, Experiences, Expectations, Perception, Pharmacists, Saudi Arabia. Received: 27-10-2020; Accepted: 01-12-2020. Copyright: © the author(s),publisher and licensee Pharmacology, Toxicology and Biomedical Reports. Tis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Tis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License Access this article online WWW.ptbreports.org DOI: 10.5530/PTB.2021.7.3 INTRODUCTION Over the past years, the pharmacist provided extensive pharmaceutical care services in Saudi Arabia and worldwide with a high reduction of drug-related morbidity and mortalities and a high reduction of economic burden on the healthcare system. 1-14 Tose pharmacy services are provided to the patients through collaboration with physicians and nurses. Te healthcare staf contact pharmacists due to various reasons, including drug information inquiries. 15-17 However, the healthcare providers’ current experience with pharmacists and future expectations of pharmacy services and their recommendations to improve the pharmacy services were critical to reaching the optimal health care services provided to the patients and benefcial and helpful in the pharmacy future strategic plan. 18,19 Various studies were conducted about healthcare providers, emphasizing physicians and their current experience and future expectations of the pharmacist in Saudi or elsewhere. 20-30 Most of the past studies included physicians only with diferent specialties. However, one of the healthcare staf who did not possess it before was the dentists. Te dentist deal with various medications and alternatives drug used during dental care. Te investigation of dentist experience and future expectations view is very crucial in practice. Te authors were not familiar with any studies about the dentist’s background and future pharmacists’ future expectations in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf and Arabic countries. Te objective of the current research to declare dentist experiences and future expectations for pharmacists in Saudi Arabia. METHOD It is a cross-sectional study that discussed the dentist’s experiences and expectations of pharmacists in Saudi Arabia. It self-reported an electronic survey of dentists. It included all dentists from internship to consultant and all dentistry specialties and located in Saudi Arabia. All non-dentists or students and non- completed surveys will be excluded from the study. Te survey statement used from previous literatures. 20-30 It consisted of demographic information about dentists and the perception of the pharmacist in general practice. Reasons for dentists communicate with a pharmacist, Dentist Actual Experiences of a pharmacist, Dentist Current Expectation of pharmacist, Dentist Future Expectations of Pharmacists, Perceived barriers that can hinder a clinical pharmacist’s role. Te 5-point Likert response scale system was used. According to the previous litterateur, the sample was calculated as a cross-sectional study with unlimited population size, population percentage 50%, confdence level 95% with z score of 1.96, and margin of error 5% and drop- out rate 10%. As a result, the sample size will equal 385 to 432, with the power of study of 80%. 31-33 Te response rate required of calculated sample size at least 60-70 % and above. 33,34  Te survey was distributed through social media of what is up and telegram groups of dentists. Te reminder message had been sent every 2-3 weeks. Te survey was validated through the revision of expert reviewers and pilot testing. Besides, various tests of reliability McDonald’s ω, Cronbach alpha, Gutmann’s λ2, and Gutmann’s λ6 had been done with the study. Te data analysis