The Awareness and Attitude of General Dentists on Dental Implants Follow-up

Abstract

Background and Aim: Considering the increasing use of dental implants in replacing lost teeth, the odds of failure over time in this treatment are inevitable, as with other dental treatments; thus, it requires careful and regular follow-up. Accordingly, the present study aimed to evaluate the awareness and attitude of general dentists about the follow-up of the dental implants to create baseline information to schedule future workshops concerning dental implants. Methods & Materials: In this analytic cross-sectional study, 98 general dentists of Arak City, Iran were evaluated. Questionnaires were designed in 3 sections, as follows: demographic, awareness, and attitude. After checking the validity and reliability of the questionnaires, they were distributed among the research participants. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, Chi-squared test, and Independent Samples t-tests. The significance level was considered 0.05. Ethical Considerations: This article was approved by the Ethics Committee of Arak University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.ARAKMU.REC.1397.283). Results: The average score of awareness of the questionnaires was equal to 10.8 (based on the score of 0-19); the mean score of attitude was measured as 12.8 (based on the score of 7-21). Fifty-Three of the explored dentists had performed implant treatment, whose awareness and attitude toward implants follow-up were significantly higher than those of the dentists who did not perform such treatment (P=0.0001). Work experience presented no significant effect on the examined dentists’ awareness and attitude (P>0.05). Conclusion: General dentists have low awareness and attitude about implant follow-up. Follow-up plays an important role in the long-term success of implant therapy; therefore, dental education/retraining programs should be reviewed in this field.