Consumer Socialization

Despite the fact that there have been literally hundreds of dental utlization studies, there is an embarassing lack of theoretical explanations for consumption patterns. Studies tend to only examine the interaction of antecedent variables (i.e., age, sex, socioeconomic status, race) with the desired outcome of utilization. Virtually no attention is paid to the process by which this determination is made. In response, this analysis examines dental consumption patterns from a marketing socialization perspective and builds a process model of dental utilization. The resulting dental socialization model stresses that practitioners can effectively market their services by "teaching dental consumption" through interpersonal and mass media channels.