No abstract

Aim. To assess the dental anxiety level among dental, medical, and pharmacy students of MAHSA University, Malaysia. Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted among 1500 undergraduate students of MAHSA University. The Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) was used to measure dental anxiety among the study population. The responses were assessed by 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. The level of anxiety was categorized into lowly anxious (5–11), moderately anxious (12–18), and severely anxious ≥19. Out of 1500 students enrolled, 1024 students (342 males and 682 females) completed and returned the questionnaire having response rate of 68.26%. Results. There was a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001) when the mean dental anxiety scores were compared among the three faculties and dental students had lowest mean score (11.95 ± 4.21). The fifth year (senior) dental students scored significantly (P = 0.02) lower mean anxiety score as compared to the first dental students (junior). The students were anxious mostly about tooth drilling and local anesthetic injection. Conclusions. Dental students have a significantly low level of dental anxiety as compared with medical and pharmacy students. Incorporation of dental health education in preuniversity and other nondental university curriculums may reduce dental anxiety among the students.

Objective: Dental and medical practitioners play a pivotal role in detecting early stages of oral cancers. Hence, future dental and medical practitioners need to have adequate knowledge of oral cancer. This study was conducted to assess the current level of knowledge, attitude and practices regarding oral cancer among dental and medical students of a Malaysian private university. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on third-, fourth-and final-year students of the dental and medical courses of MAHSA University, Malaysia. A total of 557 students participated in the survey. Oral cancer awareness, knowledge about risk factors, signs and symptoms of oral cancer, attitude and practices towards oral cancer were assessed using 43 questions. The questionnaire was pretested, and internal consistency, assessed using Cronbach's alpha, was acceptable (a > 0.7). The data were analysed using IBM SPSS version 21. The chi-square test was used to analyse the difference in oral cancer awareness between medical and dental students. Results: Among 557 participants, there were 351 (63%) medical students and 206 (37%) dental students. Based on the results obtained, dental students had a higher level of knowledge than medical students regarding oral cancer (P < 0.05). More than 90% of the dental students were able to identify smoking, alcohol consumption, betel quid chewing, human papilloma virus infection and exposure to radiation as risk factors associated with oral cancer compared to more than 50% of medical students (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Through education and training, awareness amongst medical students can be reinforced, which will promote early detection of precancerous lesions and oral cancers.

Nearly 23.53% of gutkha users have quit their habit post-ban despite its availability through illegal sources.

M. alba possess good antibacterial activity against A. actinomycetemcomitans, P. gingivalis and T. forsythia and thus would be beneficial for the prevention and treatment of periodontal disease. However, chlorhexidine gluconate was found to be more effective when compared to M. alba.