Brazilian dental students' knowledge and attitudes towards HIV infection

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate a group of Brazilian dental students' knowledge about HIV infection, the infection control measures utilized by the dental students, and students' attitudes towards treating HIV/AIDS patients. The study population consisted of 250 dental students from Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil, who were treating patients in clinics of the university and extra-mural rotations at the time of the study. The survey instrument was a self-administered questionnaire which consisted of 32 pre-coded questions and two open-ended questions. The overall response rate to the questionnaire was 54%. More than 80% of respondents (N = 135) considered every dental patient a potential HIV carrier. A majority of the students were aware of the association between HIV and Kaposi's sarcoma (92.5%), oral candidiasis (90.3%) and oral hairy leukoplakia (52.7%). A gender difference was observed in students' knowledge of oral manifestations and infection control measures, with females having better knowledge than males (p < 0.05). Because of certain inadequacies in knowledge and infection control practices among respondents, a curriculum focusing on the management of HIV/AIDS, including infection control and legal issues is recommended.

Factors related to the willingness of Palestinian dentists to treat patients with blood-borne diseases

“…Although reports from other countries showed that female dentists appear to follow infection‐control measures more closely than their male colleagues, our results found that female dentists are less likely to agree to treat a simulated patient with a blood‐borne disease in general compared with a male dentist. This may lead us to assume that this refusal reflects the exaggerated fear of transmission of infection among female dentists owing to the social stigma attached to blood‐borne diseases, especially in HIV/AIDS.…”

“…Thirty‐four per cent of respondents declined, and 16% were hesitant to accept, a request to schedule an appointment for simulated patients who identified themselves as having blood‐borne diseases. This may reflect negative attitudes of dentists towards patients with blood‐borne infections or lack of confidence in their ability, or their practice's readiness, to treat such patients. This negative attitude may force patients infected with HIV or HBV to conceal their infection from their treating dentists for fear of being denied dental treatment.…”

“…In contrast, increasing the awareness of dental professionals about how to deal with patients with blood‐borne diseases and improving infection‐control measures at dental clinics might play a more positive role in improving dentists’ attitude and confidence towards treating those patients. The literature showed that high awareness of the disease process and the measures that minimise the risk of transmission increases dentists’ willingness to treat those patients.…”

Dental students’ knowledge of human immunodeficiency virus

“…This is in agreement with a study done in Brazil where majority of the dental students considered every dental patient a potential HIV carrier and were aware of the association between HIV and Kaposi's sarcoma (92.5%), oral candidiasis (90.3%) and oral hairy leukoplakia (52.7%). 13 A study done in Tanzania reported that the clinical finding of oral hairy leukoplakia was found to have a predictive value of 100% and 95% for the presence AIDS and HIV infection, respectively. 14 Thus, there is great significance in the presence of oral hairy leukoplakia which was underestimated by the students in the present study.…”

Oral lesions associated with HIV/AIDS in HIV-seropositive patients attending a counselling and treatment centre in Dar es Salaam

“…Previous studies have suggested that many dentists choose to refer patients identified with positive sero‐conversion elsewhere, which can make it difficult for persons with HIV to access dental care 5 . This preference has been attributed to low levels of knowledge among dentists both in practice and within training institutions in which the dental training curriculum does not emphasise the management of people living with HIV/AIDS (PlwHA) 6–9 . Consequently, oral health care workers have maintained negative attitudes towards PlwHA, resulting in inadequate identification of oral lesions in such patients 10 .…”