The Status of Knowledge Related to the Emergency Management of Avulsed Tooth amongst the Medical Practitioners of Nagpur, Central India.

Abstract

Tooth avulsion is a frequently reported traumatic injury amongst young children and whenever it occurs, the parents or teachers of those children often seek the help of Medical Practitioners to provide the first line of treatment. Therefore, the general physician's knowledge regarding the same is an important issue to be taken into consideration. To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of general medical practitioners of Nagpur city of Central India regarding emergency management of avulsed tooth and highlight the importance of avulsed tooth education in schools and medical colleges in order to increase the knowledge of the same among teachers, parents and general physicians. A cross-sectional survey was carried out amongst 1045 medical doctors after a comprehensive search made in Google database using the keywords "Medical", "doctors" "Nagpur". Data regarding the emergency management of avulsed tooth was collected using a self administered close ended questionnaire. A total of 1045 medical practitioners (718 males, 327 females) voluntarily participated in this survey. It was observed that 56.8% of the medical practitioners had no prior knowledge of management of an avulsed tooth. A 81.6% of practitioners were unaware of transport medium for an avulsed tooth whereas, more than half practitioners (64.7%) were naive about an ideal time for replantation of an avulsed tooth. A little more than one third of the practitioners (26.5%) were unacquainted about the method of holding an avulsed tooth. Regardless of the level of education, the general medical practitioners of Nagpur lack most of the knowledge required for the emergency management of an avulsed teeth. Keeping the in mind the present scenario, it was recommended that education regarding avulsed tooth should be incorporated in school and medical curriculum to increase awareness among parents, teachers and medical practitioners. Also, it is the responsibility of the dentist to make the society aware of this situation.