Knowledge and awareness about dentistry among medical students, residents, and medical practitioners in Bhairahawa city, Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: Oral health is considered to be a mirror of systemic health and vice-versa. Medical professionals are considered to be the primary caregivers in a given population and as such a vast majority of the population visits them for health-related problems. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the level of knowledge and awareness of dentistry among first-year medical students, residents, and medical practitioners. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was carried out to assess the knowledge and awareness of dentistry among MBBS first-year students, medical residents, and medical practitioners of Bhairahawa city, Nepal. Data analysis was done with SPSS version 11. Results: As per the demographic characteristics out of 147 subjects 82 (55.8%) were male and 65 (44.2%) were female. Most of the participants were from the age group of 21–30 years, 66 (44.9%) and 115 (78.2%) of them were married. Among 147 subjects every respondent (100%) knew about the profession of dentistry giving statistically significant results. Conclusion: The present study shows that medical professionals had better knowledge of dentistry as compared to medical students and residents. This unnecessary gap between dental and medical professionals can only be fulfilled by including dental education in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical curriculum.

Keywords

• dentistry
• knowledge
• medical professionals