Knowledge about oral cancer among dental students and Primary Health Care dentists: A Brazilian study.

Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate the knowledge of dental students and dentists who work in Primary Health Care (PHC). These are professionals who work in the public basic health units regarding oral cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. A cross-sectional and observational Brazilian study was conducted. A survey with 27 questions was carried out regarding the (i) demographic, academic, and professional data of the participants, (ii) attitudes, practices, and self-perception about their training, and (iii) knowledge about oral cancer. With the exception of one question regarding the clinical characteristics of oral cancer, all knowledge answers were graded as correct or incorrect. Grades were assigned to each participant according to their level of knowledge, and scores for each participant were calculated ranging from 1 to 10. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to examine the difference in the knowledge score of oral cancer according to explanatory variables. The level of significance adopted was 5%. The sample comprised 541 dental students and 82 PHC dentists. Most participants did not consider it appropriate or had not received training for palpation of lymph nodes or for identifying lymphadenopathies associated with oral cancer. Less than 20% of the participants had some kind of practice before and felt safe performing biopsy surgery. The average student score was 7.01±2.15, and the average dentist score was 7.81±1.467. Although the scores were satisfactory, most of the participants did not show adequate knowledge about biopsy and palpation of cervical lymph nodes.