Knowledge and Attitude about Emergency Management of Avulsed Tooth Amongst Paramedical Students of Visnagar, Gujarat: A Questionnaire-based Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Dental trauma has emerged as a significant aspect of dental public health. Traumatized teeth require early and appropriate treatment, which frequently relies on the competence of the dentists, doctors, and nurses who provide the primary care. Aim: To assess the knowledge and attitude of paramedical students about the emergency management of avulsed tooth. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey consisting of 17 questions was designed and circulated among 365 paramedical students (nursing, pharmacy and physiotherapy) of Sankalchand Patel University, Visnagar, Gujarat, India, to assess their knowledge and attitude about the emergency management of avulsed tooth. Descriptive statistics were applied by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20.0. Results: Total 260 (71.23%, mean age of 23 years) students responded, with 71 students from Physiotherapy, 106 from Nursing and 83 from Pharmacy. A total of. 178 (68.46%) students comprehend the meaning of avulsion. While 193 (74.23%) students had knowledge that tooth re-implantation is possible. Of all the respondents, 192 students (73.84%) were familiar about the benefit of mouth guards for prevention of sports injury and 125 students (48.07%) opined that it is very important to be acquainted with emergency management of dental trauma. Conclusion: Though the paramedical students had good understanding about tooth avulsion, they were unaware about the emergency management of the situation. This warrants the need of incorporating training programmes dedicated to the subject in their curriculum.

Keywords

• dental trauma
• questionnaire survey
• mouth guards
• re-implantation
• tooth avulsion