Dentists Knowledge about Association of Systemic Health with Periodontal Disease

Abstract

Purpose: This study designed to evaluate the necessity for interdisciplinary dental and medical education by assessing clinicians' awareness of the relation between systemic health and periodontal disease. Study design: A Cross-sectional and Descriptive study. Place and Duration: In the Dental department of Hamdard University Dental Hospital, Karachi for six-months duration from July 2021 to December 2021. Methods: A sample of 200 dentists and physicians was designated using convenient technique of sampling. A self- validated and pre-validated questionnaire consisting of questions about the knowledge of the relationship between systemic health and periodontal disease among dentist was used. Data was analyzed using SPSS 24.0. Results: While 184 out of 200 dentists agreed that there was a link between periodontal disease and systemic health, 16 disagreed. Most (194) participants were aware of the periodontal disease and its associated signs and symptoms, and (6) were unaware of these symptoms. While most dentists (172) considered bleeding from the gingiva to be the major symptom clinically of periodontal disease, 102 dentists reported gingival pain as the primary symptom. In addition, most dentists (185) have stated that they have awareness about the relation between periodontal disease and diabetes, while 172 dentists have stated that cardiovascular disease and obesity are associated with periodontal disease Conclusion: The information on the association between systemic health with periodontal disease among practitioners was satisfactory. Keywords: Diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, gingival bleeding, systemic health and periodontal disease

Awareness of physicians and dentists in Serbia about the association between periodontitis and systemic diseases: a cross-sectional study

“…A similar trend was seen in the research by Narendran et al [ 38 ], who found that approximately 73% of Indian physicians agreed that bleeding gums is the first sign of periodontitis, unlike physicians from a study conducted in Turkey [ 39 ] where a smaller percentage (59%) knew the first clinical sign of periodontitis. On the other hand, about 83% of dentists in our study showed good knowledge of the clinical manifestation of periodontitis, which is a slightly smaller percentage than dentists from a study conducted in Pakistan [ 40 ], who found that 86% of dentists were aware of the first sign of periodontitis. However, these percentages should be even higher, as all dentists need to have complete knowledge of the clinical manifestation of periodontitis.…”

“…This may be because that most physicians treat patients with diabetes mellitus and ischemic heart disease daily, while gynecologists mainly monitor pregnancy outcomes. However, this should also be improved, considering that there are studies conducted in France (75%) [ 59 ] and Pakistan (73%) [ 40 ] where physicians showed a much higher level of knowledge on this topic compared to physicians from our study. Regarding dentists, there is little information about their knowledge of the impact of periodontitis on preterm birth.…”

“…1 ). However, it is still a lower percentage compared to studies carried out in Pakistan (86%) [ 40 ] and North Carolina (72%) [ 41 ].…”

“…Previous studies have shown that more than 90% of physicians and dentists in countries with different health systems know that there is a connection between systemic diseases and periodontitis [ 39 , 40 , 42 – 44 ]. The results from our study are in accordance with those of previous studies and showed that more than 90% of physicians and almost all dentists (99.8%) agreed with this claim (Table 3 ).…”

Periodontal and Systemic Diseases: A Descriptive Analysis of Awareness Among the General Saudi Population

“…Information about awareness can help bring people's attention to this significant problem, as well as take corrective steps to improve awareness if needed. Numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the level of knowledge of this issue among dental students and professionals [18][19][20][21][22]. There have only been a few studies on the comprehension of this link among the general community, particularly in the Saudi population [20,23].…”