Evaluation of patients knowledge referred to Tabriz dental faculty regarding etiology & symptoms of oral canser in 2014-2015

Abstract

Oral cancer is one of the most common cancers. The incidence of the disease in the world is increasing. Delay in detention of oral canceris common. More than half of patients are known in advance stage of disease, so the strategied that led to identification of lesions in the early stages is essential. The aim of this study is evaluation of patients knowledge referred to Tabriz dental faculty regarding etiology & symptoms of oral cancer in 2014-2015. Methods and Materials: after selection of patients for study the purposes in plain language explanation will be given to patients, then if patients are willing the informed consent are took and th the questionnaire is distributed bet went patients. The questionnaires that have been partially filled in the trial were excluded and were replaced by new patients. The stady will use a questionnaire that consist of three parts: The first section includes information on age, gender, education level and meet the dentist. In the second section 5 questions to assess the patients knowedge about risk factors and symptoms of oral cancer and the third part of the third question for assessment of knowledge about the symptoms of oral cancer. The data obtained from the study by using descriptive statitics (frequency, percent , mean Sd) will be used for statistical analysis SPSS 19 Result: The results showed that 32.4% of participants were aware of oral cancer and gained their knowledge from the media. The risk factors mentioned by these participants was as follows: sunlight 30.8%, hot and peppery food 16.1%, alcoholic drinks 46.8% and smoking 78.4% (there was significant relationship for drinking alcohol and gender, education and times of using dental service, p<0.05). They also mentioned the primary signs of oral cancer as follows: red patch without pain 21.8%, white patch without pain 20% and prolong scarring without pain 15.5% (there was significant relationship between these three signs and education and times of using dental service, p<0.05). The mean knowledge about the risk factors and signs of oral cancer were 2.02 from 5 and 0.57 from 3. Conclusions: The observed low level of knowledge of people regarding both risk factors and signs of oral cancer emphasizes the need for more efforts to be made about the above mentioned issues by the media.