EN | TR
E-ISSN: 3061-9947
Oral cancer prevention and early detection awareness of Ankara dentists
PDF
Cite
Share
Request
Original Article
VOLUME: 50 ISSUE: 2
P: 139-147
2017

Oral cancer prevention and early detection awareness of Ankara dentists

Acta Haematol Oncol Turc 2017;50(2):139-147
DOI: 10.5505/aot.2017.44977
Güzin Neda Hasanoğlu Erbaşar
Cansu Alpaslan
1. Department Of Oral And Maxillofacial Surgery, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Ankara, Turkey
2. Department Of Oral And Maxillofacial Surgery, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey
3.
No information available.
No information available
Received Date: 2017-01-11T18:37:24
Accepted Date: 2017-08-28T12:53:58
PDF
Cite
Share
Request

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Several surveys have been cunducted all over the world to evaluate dentists’ awareness and behaviors towards oral cancer, but there is no study that assesses the Turkish dentists' awareness related to oral cancers. The aim of this survey was to investigate the knowledge and awareness of trainee dentists, research assistants and general dental practitioners in Ankara regarding prevention and early detection of oral cancer.

METHODS

Turkish translation of the questionnaire that developed by Horowitz and colleagues was used in this study. This questionnaire was designated to evaluate dentists’ practices about oral cancer, the screening for risk factors in patients and opinions about their education in oral cancer. Statistical analysis of obtained data was carried out with the use of the SPSS 11.5 for Windows. The significance level was determined as p<0.05.

RESULTS

A total of 337 participants included to the survey; 118 of those were trainee dentists, 145 were research assistants, and 74 were general dental practitioners. When the data were examined; the frequency of oral cancer examination in age of 40 and above was found very low by Ankara dentists, it was also identified that they were proficient in assessing the risk factors for oral cancer when taking a medical history of their patient but their knowledge about non-risk factors showed deficiencies. Besides approximately half of the participants rated their undergraduate training as poor.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Dentists should be encouraged to perform oral cancer examination and demonstration based courses should be arranged to overcome their deficiencies related to oral cancer. Moreover, necessary regulations as a part of both undergraduate training and continuing education programs about detection and prevention of the oral cancer risk factors should be carried out in order to dentists can provide these services to their patients.