Knowledge, attitude and practices of general dentists about oral precancerous lesions in Tabriz in 2012

Abstract

Precancerous oral lesions can be controlled in the case of early detection which requires adequate level of knowledge, attitude and practice among clinicians and dentist regarding them. Due to the inadequate existing studies about the precancerous lesions, the present study investigated knowledge, attitude and practice of dentist practicing in Tabriz regarding the precancerous lesions on 2012. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional trial, 100 general dentists (41 females; 59 males) were selected from dentists practicing in Tabriz city and studied by means of a questionnaire. The questions were obtained from the reference books and the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were examined. The number of correct answers to knowledge, attitude and practice sections was summed from the total 9, 7 and 4 questions. The data were statistically analyzed by means of descriptive statistics methods, regression and Pearson coefficient tests. Results: The mean scores of knowledge, attitude and practice among dentists were 4.3, 3.2 and 2.6 from the maximum 9, 7 and 4 scores. 74.0% of participants had moderate and 20.0% of them showed good knowledge level. 22.4%, 61.2% and 16.3% showed poor, moderate and good attitudes respectively. Practice was reported to be poor, moderate, good and excellent in 7.0%, 29.0%, 32.0% and 25.0% of dentists respectively. Dentists graduated in recent years showed better attitudes, however, their practice level were poorer. Male dentists showed significantly better attitudes than females (p<0.05). Furthermore, the correlation between attitude and knowledge scores (p<0.001), knowledge and practice scores (p<0.02) and also attitude and practice scores (p<0.0001) were statistically significant. Conclusion: However, more dentists showed moderate knowledge, attitude and practice; this level is not adequate due to the importance of dentists who are responsible for the oral health of the public. This condition may cause some concerns regarding suitable diagnosis and treatment of precancerous lesions. Therefore, more educations must be designed for the dentists in the form of continuous educations.