Knowledge and awareness on pneumoconiosis among dental technicians and senior dental technology students in Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Dental technicians' pneumoconiosis is a condition that causes interstitial inflammation and fibrosis as a result of complex drug exposure. Therefore, it is of interest to assess and evaluate the knowledge and awareness about pneumoconiosis and other respiratory disorders among dental technicians and dental technology students in Saudi Arabia. A cross sectional survey was conducted on convenient sample of 300 senior dental technician students and dental technicians from Saudi Arabia and informed consent was obtained. The participants were approached through online questionnaire using Google forms. Questions were related to the socio-demographic data, knowledge and awareness of the students and the practicing dental technicians and their willingness to learn about pneumoconiosis. Final year undergraduate, interns and Dental technicians were included, undergraduate students without practical knowledge and experience and participants with history of respiratory disease were excluded from the study. Questions were assessed by face validity. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software. Descriptive statistics was calculated. 34.8% of the study group were not aware of the term and don't know about the etiology of pneumoconiosis. Pearson correlation was significant in terms of awareness difference between males and females and females had less awareness compared to males.