Isfahan General Dentists’ Knowledge and attitude about the Management of Dental Trauma

Abstract

Trauma to the teeth is a prevalentproblem in children that can lead todepression, psychosomaticissues, socialproblem,dysphasia and esthetic cancernsfor them. Dentists play a crucialrole in reducingthe side effects of dentaltrauma so that theirknowledge about the causes, preventionand treatment of such trumaisof paramount important. Consequently, this study aimed to assess the knowledgeand attitudeofgeneral dentists’ in Isfahan regardingthe management of dental trauma.Materials & Methods:The present study was a descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study that used a questionnaire consisting of demographic information and general dentists' knowledge about the management and treatment of dental trauma (22 questions) and their attitudes towards the subject (11 questions). The questionnaire was completed by 125 general dentists in Isfahan city who were randomly selected in 2019. The data were analyzed using statistical tests including t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and Spearman's correlation coefficient (p value < 0.05).Results:The mean score of general dentists’ knowledge was 13.65 ± 2.71and the mean score of attitude was 39.01 ± 5.98. Women had higher knowledge about dental trauma than men (p value = 0.002). There was also a negative correlation between age (p value = 0.001)and job experience (p value = 0.026) regarding dental trauma knowledge.Conclusion:General dentists’ knowledge, who worked in Isfahan, regarding the treatments of TDI in 2019 was at a moderate level. It is suggested that with holding dental trauma retraining courses about how to manage and urgent treat this traumas, thus being more hopeful to rescue these teeth by increasing the awareness of dentists

Keywords

• knowledge
• attitude
• tooth injuries
• dentist