Awareness of Dental Interns to Treat Pregnant Patients

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy causes major changes in maternal physiology and metabolism, which may lead to increased susceptibility to oral infection.
 AIM: Aim of this study is to assess the awareness of dental interns regarding the management of the dental needs of pregnant patients.
 METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 188 interns of a private dental college in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire comprised of 14 knowledge-based questions regarding their training, awareness and practice management of the pregnant patient in dental clinics. Four questions to record and evaluate their training, the number of pregnant patients treated by them and their confidence level in the dental management of the pregnant patient. Excel spreadsheet was used for mathematical calculations.
 RESULTS: Almost 62% of our participants never treated a pregnant female during their training. About 65% of the interns knew using antibiotics, almost 55% have a clear idea of the safest NSAIDS, and 43% regarded local anaesthesia to be safe when used among pregnant females. Conversely, about 50% of the participants had no clear knowledge of the FDA category of drugs. Only 24% considered dental radiographs to be safe in pregnant patients. 57% thought to postpone the dental treatment in an acute active dental infection in expecting mothers. Results also showed a lack of confidence among interns to provide dental care to gestating female.
 CONCLUSION: On analysing the results, we found that there is a need to improve the knowledge, awareness and confidence levels among the interns who are the future dentists treating these patients.

Endodontic Treatment in Pregnancy: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Dentists and Interns in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

“…Our study indicated that dental interns and dentists have fair levels of knowledge that need improvement. This is similar to previous studies in Nigeria [11] and Saudi Arabia [23], but different from others in India [25], Australia [22], and Saudi Arabia [28]. It should be noted that this difference might be due to different levels of education between cities and countries and the type of continuous education participants receives.…”

“…The majority of participants in our study acknowledged the importance of providing endodontic treatment and pain relief for pregnant patients, which was similar to responses in a previous study [11]. The majority of the study participants knew that pregnant patients require special positioning, which was similar to a prior study in Nigeria, but higher than a previous local Saudi Arabian study (27%) [28]. The reason for this is likely that the prior Saudi study was specifically assessing the dentist's knowledge about a semi-reclined position with a pillow under the patient's right side [28].…”

“…The majority of the study participants knew that pregnant patients require special positioning, which was similar to a prior study in Nigeria, but higher than a previous local Saudi Arabian study (27%) [28]. The reason for this is likely that the prior Saudi study was specifically assessing the dentist's knowledge about a semi-reclined position with a pillow under the patient's right side [28].…”

“…Evidence Base from Literature RCT Second trimester is the preferred time for RCT [11,23,25,28], with a semi-reclined position with a pillow under the patient's right side [28]. Nevertheless, guidelines about safe endodontic procedures usually do not specify procedures by trimester [14, 36 -38],…”

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices among Dental Practitioners Regarding Antibiotic Prescriptions for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women in the Dominican Republic

“…The literature states that up to 43% of pregnant women may suffer from pathologies of odontogenic origin that can be dangerous for both the pregnant woman and the fetus because they can rapidly progress to systemic infections [39][40][41], and they should be treated aggressively to avoid further complications [41]. If drainage of the infection is not possible or there is severe inflammation or systemic involvement such as fever, antimicrobial treatment should be chosen [39], always weighing the risk and benefit to the mother and fetus [39,40,42,43], regardless of the trimester of gestation [44]. However, there is a consensus that antibiotic prescription during the first trimester of pregnancy should be avoided where possible, as it is linked to iatrogenic teratogenicity [38].…”