Knowledge, Attitude & Practice of Ultrasonic Bone Surgery (Piezo electric) among Dentists in the State Tamilnadu- KAP Study

Abstract

Background: 
 Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude, practice of Ultrasonic bone surgery (piezo electric) among dentist in the state of Tamilnadu.
 Methods: A set of 29 questions was sent to dentists in and around Tamilnadu. The questionnaire was circulated digitally (Google forms & emails) and responses were recorded. 125 dentists participated in the study, among them 21 dentists were excluded since they did not have any awareness about piezo surgery or the equipment used.
 Statistical Analysis: The basic data was expressed used using frequency with percentages and by diagrams. For expressing quantitative variable, mean and standard deviation were used. Kruskal wallis test was used to compare whether knowledge score differed by characteristics of the selected variables and Dunn’s post hoc test was applied to find out which of the characteristics were statistically significant. All the statistical analysis were done using XLSTAT 2014 software
 Results: 63% of the dentists had adequate knowledge regarding piezo surgery and 53% of the dentists were currently using piezotome in their dental practice and 47% of dentists use it for harvesting bone grafts and 86% have complimented that it was less traumatic to the hard tissues. 81% felt that patient compliance was better compared to traditional methods like osteotome and chisel. Majority of the dentists showed a positive attitude towards piezosurgery and they extended their willingness to update their knowledge furthermore and emphasized that the concept of piezosurgery, its usage and its advantages should be given adequate importance in future dental education.
 Conclusion: This study demonstrated that knowledge and attitude towards piezosurgery was good among the dental professionals, but the actual practice of it is still deficient. This could be probably because of the lack of training in the dental schools, which could be overcome by including piezo surgery in dental curriculum and conducting workshops for improvising the skill of the dentists.