AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE, AND PERCEPTION OF DENTAL IMPLANT AMONG PATIENTS AT A TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN NORTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Background: A dental implant is a prosthesis that interfaces with the jawbone or cranium which is sunk to provide a dental prosthesis such as crown, bridge and denture or provide support for facial prosthesis or act as anchorage to orthodontic appliances. Implants are more retentive, more stable, stronger, functionally effective and provide better quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the awareness, knowledge and perception of patients attending Dental Department of Federal Medical Centre Gusau, Zamfara State in the clinical applications of dental implant. A ques Methodology: tionnaire-based study was conducted amongst patients attending dental surgery department in Federal Medical Centre Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria. A total of 408 participants were recruited through simple random sampling technique. A Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data which was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) software version 21. There were 160 (39.2%) males a Results: nd 248 (60.8%) females with a mean SD of 32.3 11.23 years. Majority (59.8%) of the respondents have not heard about dental implant before, while 164 (40.2%) respondents were aware of the dental implant and majority (n=88) source their information from dentist. Majority (80.5%) selected removable partial denture as alternative option for the replacement of missing teeth. 120 (73.2%) participants know that implant is placed in the jawbone. The perception about the durability of dental implant was good as 152 (92.7%) participants believed that it is durable. 72 (43.9%) participants opted to replace their missing teeth with an implant. The reason for rejecting the implant was due to high cost (43.9%) followed by fear (22%). There is no statistically signicant difference in terms of awareness of dental implant between gender with a p-value of 0.086. However, there is statistically signicant difference when compared with the level of education with a p-value of 0.000. The a Conclusion: wareness, knowledge and perception about dental implant is appreciable. However, cost of treatment is the major hindrance preventing accessibility to implant treatment.