Evaluation of knowledge, attitude and practice of general dental practitioners regarding HIV positive patients in Qazvin

AIDS is spreading around the globe very rapidly and still there is no absolute treatment for it.Although patients with this disease are in need of routine dental care,previous studies has shown that many dentists refuse to treat them in their office. So the objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of general dental practitioners concerning with HIV positive patients in Qazvin. fifty-one general dental practitioners working in Qazvin were selected for this descriptive-analytic study. In order to evaluate their practice, the examiner pretended to be disguised herself as a HIV+ patient and made appointments to visit them at their dental clinics. Than for the assessment of their knowledge dentist were asked to fill out some HIV-related questionnaires. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software. 30 dentists (71%) were in a average level of knowledge with a mean of 59.5%+_15.1%. Although, 36(70%) of dentists refused to treat HIV+ patients,but only 13(32%) of them expressed their reluctances in questionnaires. No statistically significant relationship was found between knowledge, attitude of dentists and their practice, regarding HIV+ patients.