Continuing education activities improve dentists’ self‐efficacy to manage oral mucosal lesions and oral cancer

Abstract

Objectives This cross‐sectional study aims to evaluate whether Continuing Education Activities (CEA) influence dentists’ behaviour in relation to oral lesions. The secondary aim is to assess the association between dentists’ perception of learning adequacy and self‐efficacy for oral mucosal lesion management. Methods A self‐administered online questionnaire was conducted on dentists working at the public health system of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The questionnaire included questions pertaining to perception of adequacy for oral diagnosis classes upon graduation, participation in oral cancer CEA and self‐efficacy in managing oral mucosal lesions. Results 221 dentists from 91 municipalities answered the questionnaire. Most participants were female (71.5%) with a mean age of 38.3 years. Perception of learning as adequate during undergraduate coursework was associated with self‐efficacy to diagnose, biopsy, and treat oral mucosal lesions (P < .05, Chi‐squared test). However, 83.3% of dentists considered the time devoted to these topics prior to graduation insufficient. The frequency of oral lesion detection was related to self‐efficacy to treat oral lesions and detecting oral cancer (P < .05, Chi‐squared test). Among dentists who detected oral lesions frequently, 88.9% had attended CEA, whereas 11.1% of them had never attended these activities. Conclusions CEA may improve awareness and efficacy of primary healthcare professional's detection of oral cancer.

The Impact of Educational Intervention on Junior Dentists’ Capacity to Detect Oral Mucosal Lesions and Suspect Malignant Potential

“…We limited the study to dental interns and junior dentists who practiced for less than 5 years and graduated from the same institute to ensure that the participating dentists have similar and recent knowledge concerning oral cancer knowledge and training. Further like previously published reports (Seoane et al, 2012;Pentenero et al, 2014;Braun et al,2021), our data imply that the engagement with continuing education activity has improved junior dentists' ability to detect oral mucosal abnormalities and, more critically, increased their accuracy in stratifying the malignant potential of oral lesions. The participants showed competency in identifying the normal variation of the oral mucosa since 90% of them were able to correctly recognize the mucosal change and also being able to exclude the malignant potential in this group of cases.…”

“…oral cancer among current and future dentists is crucial for early detection and prevention of the cancer (Seoane et al, 2012;Braun et al, 2021;Gaballah, et al, 2021). Several studies have found that dental practitioners fail to recognize oral cancer at an early stage due to poor attitudes and a lack of knowledge about the disease's symptoms and signs (Seoane-Lestón et al, 2010;Marino et al, 2017;Gaballah, et al, 2021).…”

“…Since visual examination is a key step in assessing oral mucosa, dentists should competency in recognizing changes of the oral mucosa and to stratify their risk of malignancy. Studies have shown that oral cancer-related continuing education programs for primary care providers may improve the dentists' ability to early detect oral cancer (Silverman and Rankin 2010;Braun et al, 2021). However, they recommended that continuing education (CE) activities should be expanded to include oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) since the recognition of OPMDs can significantly enhance detecting oral cancer at early stage.…”

Artificial intelligence in disease diagnosis: a systematic literature review, synthesizing framework and future research agenda

“…As of now, doctors can lean toward a lack of conclusion or inexact danger to their patients based on their characteristic history and the open acquired data Digital health records (Luo et al 2019 ) They are keeping up just as vital well-being records are a long and expensive cycle. As a result, they have assumed an important function in encouraging the data access measure Medical trials (Romanini et al 2020 ) It is based on machine and profound learning that relies on expository examination to perceive conceivable clinical preliminary applicants, where scientists can contract down their pool from a wide assortment of information Information crowdsourcing (Rodrigues et al 2016 ) The wellbeing field has been publicly supporting, and nowadays’ specialists utilize the strategy to get to a tremendous measure of information that individuals transfer Outbreak prediction (Chen et al 2019a , b ) Machine and profound learning-based procedures are utilized to screen and expect flare-ups about the world to anticipate the scourge Medical imaging diagnostics (Nasser et al 2019 ) Simulated intelligence strategies end up being broader, just as productive in their capacity to see an expanding measure of information sources from different clinical pictures …”

Use of an audience response system during a continuing education action about oral lesion diagnosis

“…According to Ergun et al., 18 85% of dentists reported difficulties diagnosing oral lesions and 62% did not update their knowledge from the literature. Continuing education actions (CEAs) have proven to be a promising strategy to improve the knowledge of oral cancer among health professionals and may improve awareness and efficacy in the detection of oral cancer 19,20 . Among them, the ‘Maio Vermelho Project’ (Red May Project) is a campaign created in the Rio Grande do Sul, the Southernmost Brazilian State, which focuses on increasing awareness and promoting oral cancer detection.…”