ABSTRACT
Statement of Problem: General practitioners and pediatricians are in an ideal position to advise families about the prevention of oral diseases in their children because of their frequent contacts with families for routine preventive visits in the child's first few years of life
Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding the prevention of oral diseases among an Iranian group of physicians and pediatricians
Methods and Material: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 296 physicians and pediatricians in Isfahan. A self-administered questionnaire was used to determine the socio-demographic information, knowledge on risk factors, attitude and practice about the prevention of oral diseases. The collected data were analyzed using t-test and Chi-square statistical tests
Result: The mean scores of knowledge, attitude and practice on the prevention of oral diseases among physicians and pediatricians were 62 +/- 14, 94 +/- 8 and 38 +/- 17, respectively. No significant differences were detected between physicians and pediatricians in their scores [p >0.05]. Knowledge and also their practice showed a correlation with their attitude. Physicians who worked at governmental centers had better oral health practice
Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, the present educational courses about oral health in medical school both in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula are insufficient. The good level of knowledge and attitude but weakness in oral health practice revealed that the increased level of knowledge and attitude does not necessarily lead to good practice in prevention of oral diseases. Therefore, practical education on oral health and training for referring the cases to dentists during medical students. education can improve their practice in oral health preventive measures
ABSTRACT
Graduated dentistry students ought to be competent in different fields of community dentistry such as health education, needs assessment, planning and policy making. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of community dentistry course on dental students' competencies in different fields of community dentistry through self-monitoring method in Isfahan School of dentistry. This quasi-experimental study was conducted on two groups using pre-test and post-test. Through census sampling method, 50 students were studied before and after passing the community dentistry course, as experiment group and 40 students who did not pass this course were studied as the control group at the time of graduation. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire which was completed by students as self-administered. The questionnaire assessed students' competencies in 6 determined areas with a scale ranging from unacceptable to excellent. The results were analyzed by SPSS software using Paired t-test and t-test. The difference between the scores of experiment group's competencies in all six determined areas was significant, before and after passing the course. Comparing the scores of the experiment and control groups showed significant differences in all areas except in "preventive dentistry services". Community dentistry course has been successful in making the students competent in community dentistry fields. In order to improve these results, it is recommended to devote more time and facilities to the subjects such as needs assessment and course planning