Knowledge, Attitude and Performance of Shiraz General Dentists about Infection Control Principles during Preparing Intraoral Radiographies

Infection control in dental centers is affected by the persons’ attitude and knowledge about mechanisms of infection transmission. This study was designed to evaluate the knowledge and the attitude of Shiraz dentists about infection control during intraoral radiographies preparation.
In this cross-sectional, and analytical research, the attitude and the knowledge of 45 male and 25 female, randomly selected dentists, were obtained through completion of a researcher- planed questioner which its validity and reliability had been confirmed. Data were analyzed using Cronbach`s alpha, one-way ANOVA, student’s t-test, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient in SPSS (V.21).
The average of the dentists’ age was 40.59±10.72 and their average occupational experience was 13.49±9.75 years. The mean score obtained for knowledge about infection control during intraoral radiographic procedures was less than fifty percent of total obtainable score, and was assessed as weak knowledge. There was no significant difference in the level of knowledge between studied male and female dentists (P>0.05). In addition, no significant relationship was detected between level, age/experience, and the university of education (P>0.05). The attitude of the dentists about infection control during intraoral radiography preparation assessed as moderate to good level.
The results showed that the main reason for the present problems is insufficient knowledge of the dentists in related subjects. Therefore, the solution, which is recommended among dentists, is to raise their awareness and to change their attitudes and culture in order to improve their performance.