Abstract
Objectives: Oral health care to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is usually neglected due to the social stigma and the fear of cross infection. Hence, this study aimed to assess the knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS and the attitude of junior residents in providing oral care to PLWHA. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to 96 junior dental residents in our institute, who were providing oral care at peripheral dental centers. Subjects answered a question “will you be willing to provide oral care on your free will if you knew the patient has HIV/AIDS” either “yes” or “no;” followed by questionnaire assessing knowledge on HIV/AIDS, and its oral manifestations and Medical Condition Regard Scale were used for assessing the attitude of residents. Results: Of the 96, only four reported to treat HIV/AIDS patients willingly; only 2% of residents have ever treated HIV/AIDS patients. More than 70% of them did not know the protocol in case of needle prick or blood splatter and post-exposure prophylaxis. However, the knowledge regarding oral manifestation of HIV/AIDS was satisfactory. The attitude of the residents was more negative (median=3.02) toward treating HIV/AIDS patients. Conclusion: Knowledge regarding post-exposure protocol was poor and it is high time that special care dentistry is included as part of the dental curriculum to increase awareness and knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS; and we do recommend compulsory postings for junior residents in tertiary hospitals to alleviate the fear, discrimination, and stigmatizing attitude toward HIV/AIDS.
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