Awareness and knowledge of systemic diseases and its relevance to oral health care among dentists and dental interns : Observational cross-sectional study / Abdelaziz Mohamed Ahmed Moussa ; Supervised Fat{u2019}heya Zahran , Wesam Abdelmoneim , Shereen Ali

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Oral and Dental Medicine - Department of Periodontology

Objectives: the aim of the present study was to evaluate the degree of knowledge and awareness among dentists and dental interns about systemic diseases and its relevance to oral health. Methods: Present day advances in medical sciences and technology has resulted in substantial increase in the volume of dental patients with systemic illnesses. Absence or inadequacy of precautions needed to be taken while carrying out routine dental treatment for medically compromised patients may result in worsening their medical status or even result in a fatality. Care needs to be taken while prescribing medications for these patients in the form of altered dosage or altering the medications themselves. Results: The results of the present study showed some fatal deficiencies in the included dentists{u2019} awareness, for instance, only 55.4% and 50.2% knew that hepatobiliary and hematologic disorders can cause bleeding tendency. Similarly, only 26% of dentists realized that anticoagulants can cause bleeding tendency. Such lack of awareness can lead to horrible emergency situations during dental sessions. The results of the present study showed some differences between studied groups, where younger dentists (younger than 30 years old, specially interns) showed more awareness than older ones, but the overall comparison between these 2 groups did not reach statistical significance

Issued also as CD