Awareness and knowledge of the general public at southern region of Saudi Arabia regarding dental implants

ABSTRACT

Aims: To assess the awareness, knowledge, and information sources regarding dental implants as anoption of treatment to replace missing teeth among patients in Jazan Province, Saudi Arabia.Materials and methods: The current study consisted of 14 questions used to assess the patients’awareness, expectations and level of knowledge of dental implants. Three categories of questionswere used, with the first one related to the patients’ knowledge and options for replacement of missingteeth, the second about dental implants and their providers, and the third on the techniques, materials,care, and durability of dental implants. The collected data was analyzed using Chi-square tests, and Pvalues less than 0.005 were considered significant. Results: A total of 380 subjects were divided intotwo groups, medical (40.3%) or non-medical (59.7%) related. We found that 85% and 71.0% of themedical and non-medical subjects, respectively know the importance of replacement of missing teeth,while 50% had known the different types of dental implants with no significance (P< .001) betweenthe two groups. Dentists were the sources of the information (43.3% and 34.8% for the medical andnon-medical groups respectively). Around 50% of the medical subjects thought that dental implantscame with a screw compared with 36.6% of non-medical subjects with value of P .025. In total, 60%-70% of respondents from both groups answered that dental implants should be provided by specialistsonly. Around 29% of all patients cited “lifetime” as the survival period of implants. Also, 52%-77%of the respondents related the implant site to the “the jaw bone,” with significant difference of P .000.Conclusions: The awareness and knowledge of the subjects were acceptable with higher percentageamong respondents in the medical group. Dentists followed by friends were the main sources ofinformation for dental implants. Dental implants are considered as the best choice for replacement ofmissing teeth with excellent durability and need of much more special care than natural teeth