| Sumario: | Purpose: Implicit biases affect the patient-provider relationship, including shared decisions, treatment goals, patient adherence, and interpersonal communication. The purpose of this study was to investigate implicit racial preferences among dental hygienists. Methods: A two-part web-based survey was used to collect demographic data and identify implicit racial preferences using the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Currently licensed and practicing dental hygienists within the United States were eligible to participate. A snowball sampling method was used to distribute the survey through social media sites. A randomly generated identification code was used to match responses between the two survey sites used. Results: Of the 603 responses, 404 responses were used to determine an average d-score of 0.31, or a slight preference for European American over African American. Results showed a significance in the number of years worked and race/ethnicity, with non-White dental hygienists and those working less than 5 years having lower d-scores compared to White dental hygienists with 21-50+ years of experience. Task 'order effect', previous IAT experience and bias training had no statistical significance on d-scores. Conclusions: Findings from this study may contribute to dental hygienists becoming more aware of their own racial biases which may positively impact the patient-provider relationship, clinician decision making, and oral health disparities. Further research with a larger and more diverse pool of participants is recommended to enhance the understanding of racial attitudes and stereotypes of dental hygienists.
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