Assessment of the Dentistry undergraduates’ knowledge on tooth avulsion

Resumo

Dental trauma affects mainly children, teenagers and
young adults and the anterior teeth. In dental avulsion, the teeth are
completely displaced out of the socket. This dentoalveolar lesion is
that causing the most severe functional, esthetic, and psychologic
damage to the patient. Objective: To evaluate the knowledge level
of Dentistry undergraduates on tooth avulsion and verify whether
the course period would be associated with the knowledge level.
Material and methods: A questionnaire adapted from Fujita et al..
[5], was applied, consisting of three parts, Part 1: general demographic
data; Part 2: questions about the experience in tooth trauma Part
3: knowledge about tooth avulsion. The questionnaire was applied
to 706 Dentistry undergraduates from Positivo University (PR), in
June, 2015. The chi-square test was used to identify differences in
responses for different variables, with significance level of 5%. Results:
Most of the students were at the age range from 16 to 20 years-old
(47.1%), were female (74.7%), were not trained on first-aid care in cases
of tooth trauma (73.9%), and never faced a case of tooth avulsion
(68.8%). The course period was statistically and positively associated
with the knowledge on dental avulsion. Conclusion: The evaluated
Dentistry undergraduate students knew how to manage cases of tooth
avulsion. Statistically significant differences occurred in relation to
the course period and the knowledge on tooth avulsion.