Evaluation of Dentist's Knowledge and Practice About Dental Management of Oral Cancer Patients

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Dentists play a key role in and the management of oral cancer treatment complications. This study aimed to evaluate the general and specialist dentists' knowledge and practice regarding the dental management of such patients. METHODS: This cross-sectional analytic study was conducted among 370 general and specialist dentists in Isfahan, Iran 2020. A self-administrative questionnaire was designed and validated. The questionnaire had 18 questions in Knowledge section, 10 questions to measure performance, and 3 questions to evaluate dentist's opinion toward their management ability. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive and analytic tests such as T-Test, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney, Chi-square, and Fisher's Exact statistics (P </= 0.05). RESULTS: The mean knowledge score was 9.96+/-2.87 in specialists and 7.59+/-2.36 in general dentists (out of 18, P < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between the mean knowledge based on gender, employment type, work experience of general and specialist, or the number of working days in a week. In addition, there was a significant relationship between the mean knowledge and having patients with oral cancer undergoing radiotherapy or chemotherapy (P = 0.012). CONCLUSION: This study indicated that specialists'knowledge level is higher than general dentists. It was also shown that knowledge directly relates to practice and attitude. Besides, regarding insufficient knowledge of dentists in this field, it is necessary to hold training programs and retraining sessions.