Abstract
One of the global health issues is Oral cancer, which has an increased death rate. Awareness of oral cancer screening is important for oral health care professionals for early detection and improving the patients' survival rate. Attitude towards oral cancer awareness and knowledge of oral cancer screening are the key factors that impact oral cancer awareness success.
 Materials and Methods: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of dental practitioners and dental students towards screening for oral pre-cancer and cancer. This study included dental practitioners working in various academic institutions and private practitioners in Chennai. Participants were asked to fill in age, gender, designation, and experience. A structured questionnaire consisting of 10 questions, each having four options, was administered to the participants. The data collected was 100 responses analyzed by statistical package for the social science (spss inc., version 16 for, Chicago, IL, USA). Simple descriptive statistics were used to describe the distribution of data collected. T-test and ANOVA were employed to assess the statistically significant difference in the KAP scores between different groups.
 Results: The response rate for the present study was 100%. 37% of general dental practitioners reported that they routinely do a thorough oral examination for all the patients,52% agree that they are adequately trained to examine patients for oral pre-cancer and cancer screening,8% of them reported that they never do toluidine blue staining for patients with oral lesion. Majority(57) of them agree that they would recommend biopsy for suspected cases of oral cancer. Only 9% of the participants were aware of the time required for intraoral screening examination. 31% of them were aware of the risk of malignant transformation in a white lesion. 73% of the participants were aware of the occurrence of oral cancer in non - tobacco users was rare. 53% of agree that thorough intraoral examination for oral cancer will reduce oral cancer mortality and morbidity.
Highlights
The global well-recognized health problem is the cancer of the oral cavity and the pharynx, leading to a higher rate of mortality, especially in developing countries [1,2,3,4].questions (Table 1), each with four options, was administered
Majority (57) of them agree that they would recommend biopsy for suspected cases of oral cancer .only 9% of the participants were aware of time require for intraoral screening examination. 31% of them were aware of the risk of malignant transformation in a white lesion.73% of the participants were aware of the occurrence of oral cancer in non-tobacco uses was rare.53% of agree that thorough for intraoral examination for oral cancer will reduce oral cancer morbidity and mortality
Since Attitude-based questions could not be used for scoring, we calculated the total score for each participant's knowledge-based questions
Summary
The global well-recognized health problem is the cancer of the oral cavity and the pharynx, leading to a higher rate of mortality, especially in developing countries [1,2,3,4].questions (Table 1), each with four options, was administered. The global well-recognized health problem is the cancer of the oral cavity and the pharynx, leading to a higher rate of mortality, especially in developing countries [1,2,3,4]. Diagnosis of oral cancer is required to reduce the rate of morbidity and mortality, lower treatment costs, and better quality of life. Health professionals, especially dentists, should perform oral cancer examinations as part of their clinical practice and be aware of the disease's pathogenesis and first clinical signs [6,7]. Studies have reported a lack of sufficient knowledge and experience among professionals in diagnosing oral cancer in early stages [8] since there is no information regarding this issue among the dentist, the present study was conducted. The present study aimed to assess general dental practitioners' knowledge, attitude, and practices about oral pre-cancer and cancer screening in Chennai
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
