Are Medical Practitioners interested in oral- systemic disease connection? - Assessment of awareness and knowledge among Medical Doctors in Port Harcourt
Keywords:
Medical Doctors, Oral-Systemic interactions, Knowledge, Chronic Periodontitis, Non-communicable DiseasesAbstract
Background: Though literatures abound as regards the association between chronic periodontitis and non-communicable diseases through the inflammatory pathway that is common to all, however, there is still a low referral from medical doctors to the dentists for oral care.
Methodology: All consenting medical practitioners that attended the 2019 Annual General Meeting of the Nigeria Medical Association in Port Harcourt. Data was collected with self- administered questionnaire and analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0. Statistical significance was set at p≤0.05.
Results: One hundred and fifty-six medical doctors were recruited with M: F of 1.5:1. 28.9% were specialists, 14.1% have practised for over 30 years and 90.4% claimed a knowledge of oral health. Though, 7 out of 10 participants knew gum disease is a form of periodontal disease, only 1 out of 2 and 1 out of 5 knew that the aetiological factor is dental plaque and gingival bleeding is the first sign respectively. One quarter of participants did not know that cigarette smoking is a risk factor for periodontitis. 4 out of 5 participants will seek the dentist opinion for and 9 out of 10 will refer patients. There was statistical significance between participants knowledge of systemic diseases and cadre as regards COPD, CKD and PLBW.
Conclusion: Medical doctors have poor awareness of oral-systemic interactions and are not so knowledgeable about the diseases that can result from them. There is therefore, the need to educate them and emphasize the importance of referring their patients for oral care.
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