Assessment of the Knowledge and Attitude and Practice of General Dentists in Yazd City about Oral Precancerous Lesion in 2018

Early detection of oral cancer by diagnosing the precancerous lesions is the best way for controlling and decreasing cancer’s mortality. Dentists have a significant role in early detection of precancerous lesions and their capability to detect is highly subjected to their levels of knowledge about these lesions. The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of general dentists in Yazd City regarding oral precancerous lesions.

In this cross-sectional study, 180 Yazd general dentists, selected and they completed a questionnaire, which was consisted of two parts: demographic information and questions referring the knowledge, attitude and practice; data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software and ANOVA and T-test.

Mean score of knowledge was 13.38 ± 2.49 from maximum 22 and mean score of attitudes was 19.35 ± 1.72 from maximum 21, which implies that the participants have a better attitude. No significant correlation was reported between knowledge and gender, years of graduation, workplace, work experience, and attending in retraining classes (P. -value=0.255). There was a significant correlation between attitude and years of graduation (P-value=0.056), which means that participants with 5 years of graduation or less had better attitude toward precancerous lesions.

General dentists of Yazd City have an average knowledge but a good attitude towards precancerous lesions of mouth . Regarding their practice, more than 50% of the participants referred to the orthopedic specialist in case of precancerous lesions.