A survey on the knowledge of general dental practitioners about sterilization and disinfection in Sari

Abstract

Background and Objective: Commonly, dentists and the other members of dental personnel are at high risk of infection transmission because of the exposure to the patient’s blood and saliva. Therefore, it is necessary for dentists to know about infection control methods. Sterilization and disinfection are important parts of infection control. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of the dentists about the sterilization and disinfection in Sari. Methods: This cross-sectional, analytical and descriptive study was performed on 62 general dental practitioners and specialists in Sari in 2003. A questionnaire about the sterilization and disinfection prepared and completed by dentists. From 62 dentists, 44 (71%) were men and 18 (29%) were women. Nine dental specialists (14.5%) and 53 general dental practitioners (85.5%) responded to the questions. Then data analyzed by T-test and Pearson correlation and P<0.05 was considered significant. Findings: The mean of knowledge was 11.8 from 20 points. The knowledge of the women (12.3) was more than men (11.6). The mean of knowledge in dentists with 5 years duration of service or less was more than the other groups. The knowledge of dentists who educated in the great universities (Tehran, Shahid Beheshti, Mashhad, Shiraz, Isfahan) was less than the other universities in Iran. Finally, mean of knowledge had been 15 for the dental specialist and 11.3 for the general dental practitioners (P<0.0001). Conclusion: According to the importance of the subject, the results showed that the knowledge of dentists about sterilization and disinfection is not at the favorable level.

Keywords

• infection control
• sterilization
• disinfection
• dentist
• sari