A Matter of Trust: Building and Validating the Dental Hygienist Trust Scale.

Introduction: Trust is a fundamental component of the therapeutic alliance in healthcare, yet research in the dental field has traditionally focused on dentists, often neglecting the distinct role of the dental hygienist. To the best of our knowledge, no validated tools exist specifically for measuring patient trust in dental hygienists. Objectives: This study aimed to develop and validate the Dental Hygienist Trust Scale (DHTS), an instrument adapted to assess patient trust specifically toward dental hygienists. Methods: Following a linguistic and contextual adaptation of the original Dentist Trust Scale, a cross-sectional study was conducted at the University Dental Clinic of Chieti. Psychometric properties were assessed using Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) for factorial validity. Inferential statistics included the Shapiro-Wilk test, independent samples t-tests, and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: A total of 161 participants were recruited (mean age 46.7 ± 19.1 years; 52.2% female). The DHTS showed high internal consistency (alpha = 0.88) and a robust single-factor structure (62.4% of total variance). Participants reported high trust levels (mean score 3.65 ± 0.56). No significant differences were observed regarding gender (p = 0.218) or age (r = 0.04, p = 0.612). Conclusions: The initial psychometric evaluation of the DHTS provides a preliminarily validated instrument for assessing the patient-hygienist relationship, filling a significant gap in dental literature. Further longitudinal research is recommended to explore the temporal stability and clinical impact of these trust perceptions.