Knowledge of General Dentists and Senior Dental Students in Iran about Prevention of Infective Endocarditis

Abstract

Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infection of the endothelial surface of the heart and heart valves with serious, even fatal, complications and that often requires long-term and expensive treatment. Dental procedures may lead to IE in high-risk patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the knowledge of general dentists and dental students concerning the prevention of IE in Hamadan, Iran. In this cross-sectional study, the awareness of general dentists and dentistry students concerning the prevention of IE was evaluated during 2010. A questionnaire was prepared and administered to 58 final-year dental students and 96 general dental practitioners in Hamadan. A total of 154 persons completed the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of some demographic questions and questions about awareness of IE in three sections. The gathered data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Pearson's chi-square test, Mann-Whitney test, and independent t-tests. The gathered data showed that dentistry students answered the questions about awareness of the prevention of IE more correctly than did general dentists. The overall knowledge of endocarditis prophylaxis among students and dentists was about 65% and 56%, respectively. The students' knowledge was better because 94.9% of the students had desired (acceptable) and relatively desired knowledge; this result for dentists, however, was 82.3%. In our study, the overall awareness level of the study population was moderate. Dentist and students believed that patients with prosthetic valves and previous IE were the most common cardiac disease cases that required prophylaxis. The most common prophylactic regimen was in accordance with the guidelines of the American Heart Association and was a single dose of 2 g amoxicillin 1 hour before treatment. The results indicated that gender had no effect on the level of knowledge; however, there was a statistically significant relationship between age and level of knowledge.

Knowledge About Chronic Orofacial Pain Among General Dentists of Kermanshah, Iran

“…According to the obtained findings, the overall knowledge level had direct significant relationship with age. Increase in the knowledge level of dentists with aging has been shown in several studies [ 44 , 45 ]. It seems that this relationship is the result of gaining professional experience in older dentists.…”

Evaluation of an educational concept for risk-oriented prevention in undergraduate dental education

“…The knowledge of participants regarding antibiotic prophylaxis was approximately good (over 75% correct answers), regardless of the methodological approach. In the available literature, mixed results were found for students' knowledge regarding this issue [16,32]. However, the students, who took part in the seminars (group A), stated that the dentist must make the indication for antibiotic prophylaxis.…”

Dentists’ knowledge and practices about infective endocarditis antibiotics prophylaxis among children in southwestern Saudi Arabia

“…These findings are as per those of in Iran, who found significant differences among dentists' knowledge about antibiotics prophylaxis against infective endocarditis according to their age groups (p=0.007), work experience (p=0.001), and sources of information (p=0.005), but not according to their gender. 17 Moreover, in Nigeria, they reported differences in dentists' knowledge on infective endocarditis according to their age (p=0.035), educational level (p=0.023), but not according to their gender. 18…”

“…In Iran, it was reported that participants' sources of information about infective endocarditis were textbooks (70.9%), journal articles (13.5%), and conferences (15.6%). 17 In Nigeria, it was reported that participants' sources of information about infective endocarditis were lectures (54.5%), internet (34.6%), and textbooks (2.2%). 18 Amoxicillin was the most commonly prescribed antibiotics by dentists in our study for prophylaxis against infective endocarditis (90.7%), followed by Augmentin (37.4%), while the timing of administering prophylactic antibiotics was stated to be 30-60 minutes before the procedure by the majority of participant dentists (86.8%).…”