OSCC remain a global health problem. Lack of awareness leads to inadequate watchfulness regarding early signs/symptoms despite the ease of visual oral inspection. What clinicians know and feel, and how they behave on OSCC is crucial to understand the feasibility and effectiveness of screening programs. The aim of this systematic review was to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) regarding OSCC among health care providers (HCPs). Therefore, a systematic review was conducted with SPIDER and PICO as major tools. A meta-analysis was structured through common items in two comparison groups of medical and dental practitioners. Descriptive statistics and a Mantel–Haenszel test were used to validate data. Sixty-six studies were selected for systematic review, eight of which are useful for meta-analysis. A statistically significant difference was recorded between dentists and medical practitioners for questions regarding: Alcohol (p < 0.001); Elderly (p < 0.012); Sun exposure (p < 0.0001); Erythroplakia (p < 0.019); Red patch (p < 0.010); White patch (p < 0.020); Tobacco consultation (p < 0.0001); Intraoral examination (p < 0.0001) and Up-to-date knowledge (p < 0.002). Overall, the incidence of OSCC screening is low. Most HCPs feel the need to increase KAP. Data confirmed gaps in KAP, highlighting the need for a more efficient pre- and post-graduation training, necessary to increase competence worldwide.

Objectives Evidence on the awareness and knowledge level of oral cancer and its associated risk factors among dental hygienists is scarce; this systematic review aimed to synthesize their available evidence of the level of knowledge, attitude and practice. Methods PubMed and Scopus were searched for publications from any year up to January 2021. Studies about knowledge and/or attitudes and/or practices of dental hygienists have been taken into account. Overall, 14 studies have been selected for the systematic review. Results Excluding tobacco use (99.8%–100%), considerable variability were found among dental hygienists about important oral cancer risk factors such as alcohol consumption (30.0%–90.0%), human papilloma virus (23.0%–90.0%), oldness (37.7%–69.3%), diet (30.0%–42.2%) and betel quid chewing (5.0% and 98.0%). There was a good level of awareness among dental hygienists regarding leukoplakia (86.5%), instead less than half recognized erythroplakia as a precancerous lesion. Moderate knowledge was recorded about frequent sites of oral cancer development. Most of dental hygienists reported to perform intraoral screening (85.2%–100%). To regard attitude, a great variability was found about adequacy of undergraduate training (15.7%–75.0%) and most of dental hygienists expressed the need for continuing education (92.7%–99.0%). Conclusions Dental hygienists play a key role in oral cancer detection. Low knowledge of oral cancer among dental hygienists is strongly associated with the low levels of early detection. These findings provide useful information to improve continuing education programmes pre‐ and post‐graduation targeted at the prevention of oral cancer in order to reduce oral cancer morbidity and mortality.