ABSTRACT
Introduction:Stem cells (SCs) enabled great advances in different health fields, including Dentistry. Objective: To investigate the knowledge of last year Dentistry undergraduate students regarding SCs and its applications. Material and methods: A questionnaire with open-ended questions was applied to the students, followed by qualitative-quantitative analysis involving the clustering of the answers. Results: The majority of students (70%) defined SCs adequately, only half of the interviewees (48.8%) were unable to classify SCs and just 26.2% classified it correctly. On the question about SCs from dental tissues, 77.5% reported it was possible and 70.9% knew which tissues could be used. The main source of knowledge was the media (36.4%), followed by the University (26.6%); 88.5% stated that the topic was only addressed in the first year of the course. Consequently, only 7.5% reported being capable of answering questions about it. Conclusion:The students are not receiving enough information about the topic.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The Human Genome Project (HGP) has allowed for advances in diagnosis and prevention of diseases. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge of undergraduates from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, regarding HGP and its applicability. Material and methods: Thirty-one students were interviewed by using a questionnaire with open questions, followed by qualitative and quantitative analysis through answers' grouping. Results: Only 4.5% did not know HGP, while most of them (83%) demonstrated knowledge gained from the media. Only 21% cited the undergraduate program as a source of information, 56% recognized advances in disease prevention and 81% reported applicability in Dentistry. 97% students would give blood samples for research, 28% reported concern about misuse of this information, while 31% did not report any disadvantage. Conclusion: It may be concluded that the students have some knowledge on HGP. However, it is not widely discussed during course, because the media was the main source of information.