Knowledge and attitude of a group of dentists towards the topics of a course on principles of successful dental practice management

The aim of the present study was to investigate self-perceived need to learn practice management and self reported knowledge in this regard among dentists. A group of five academic staff members of Community Oral Health Department (Tehran Dental School) and four dentists formed an expert panel to develop the content of the course. This group developed a list of topics related to principles of successful dental practice. To investigate the necessity of educating the topics and self-assessed knowledge of the topics, a questionnaire was designed and administered to 55 volunteer dentists. Forty six dentists completed the questionnaire. T-test and Chi-square test were used for statistical analyses. Totally more than two-third of the dentists believed that a huge need exists for education of all the topics. The corresponded figure for such topics as ergonomics and medical emergencies was about 90%. About 80% of the dentists felt that they had a vast knowledge of safety and infection control. On the other hand, 54.3% of them reported weak knowledge regarding professional rules and regulations. Self-reported educational need and knowledge of the dentists did not show significant association with their age, gender, and work experience(P>0.05). The dentists believed in the necessity of educating such topics and evaluated their knowledge as deficient in these areas. This shows the necessity of developing courses on these topics.