EVALUATION OF URMIA DENTISTS KNOWLEDGE ATTITUDE PRACTES A BOUT ORAL CANCER IN 2010

Most oral cancers are diagnosed in the late stages. Since dentists can play a critical role in early detection of oral cancers if they have sufficient information. They should be knowledgeable and skilled in oral cancer diagnosis. This study desires to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of the Urmia general dentists with regard to the oral tumors and tumor-like lesions in 2010. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 150 general dentists who had private clinics in Urmia in 2010. A questionnaire including 20 questions about oral cancer was designed. The questionnaires were delivered to the dentists at their clinics and then gathered. The data were analyzed via SPSS software and the t-student and Pearson correlation coefficient tests were applied as inferential statistics. There were 114 male and 36 female dentists with the mean age of post graduated 7.84 years. The mean score of knowledge was 4.91 and 5.16 for males and females respectively. There was no significant difference between them. Ninety percent of dentists don’t examine patients for oral cancer. Knowledge of the dentists in Urmia in relation to oral cancer was not sufficient. So the application of strategies for increasing their knowledge regarding oral cancer is necessary.