Should Medical Students Be Educated About Dental Trauma Emergency Management? A Study of Physicians and Dentists in Kerman Province, Iran

Abstract

Since physicians sometimes need to attend a case of dental trauma, it is necessary that they possess suficient knowledge of management of traumatic dental emergencies. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge of dental trauma among dentists and physicians. A three-part questionnaire, including demographic data, knowledge, and self-assessment, was administered to 104 dentists and 151 physicians in Kerman Province, Iran. Data obtained from 255 completed questionnaires were statistically analyzed using t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, chi-square, and Pearson correlation coeficient. Among the physicians, only fourteen (9.3 percent) had received education regarding dental trauma. In contrast, seventy-seven dentists (74 percent) had received information on what to do if a tooth is traumatized. Regarding knowledge level, only 10.6 percent of the physicians had high knowledge, while 66.3 percent of the dentists demonstrated high knowledge. The differences of knowledge level between the two groups were statistically signiicant (p=0.0001). More than half of the dentists (58.3 percent) and nearly all the physicians (98.7 percent) were dissatisied with their level of knowledge and suggested that further education on the topic should be offered.

Identifying barriers that affect medical doctors’ learning of dental trauma

“…The three most common findings related to personal attitude, a lack of information, and personal concerns. Personal attitude included low levels of awareness towards dental trauma; 9-11 lack of motivation for learning dental trauma management; 12 disinterested in seeking dental advice; 12,13 harbouring attitudes that dental trauma should be managed by dentists; 12,14 low confidence; [13][14][15][16][17][18] and avoidance due to the legal implications in managing dental trauma. 13 The lack of information theme included: medical doctors being more concerned about bleeding from the alveolus than prolonging the survival of the tooth itself;…”

“…the lack of written protocol or instructions within hospital facilities; 10,11,16,17 the application of incorrect protocol instructions; 10 a lack of formal education; 6,[9][10][11][13][14][15]17 no dental teaching during medical school; 9,13,14,17,18 and dental trauma being excluded from medical texts or first-aid manuals. [16][17][18] Under lack of training, the issues included: a lack of postgraduate training; 9,11,13-18 a lack of clinical exposure to, and experience of, dental trauma; 9,17,18 a lack of validated training; 9,13,17 inadequate management time and allocated resources to treat dental injuries; [15][16][17] and an absence of dental trauma in emergency residency training programs.…”

Learning about dental trauma for medical students

“…Similarly, 76% of medical doctors in the Skapetis et al study reported having no lectures on the topic of dental trauma. Several studies showed that educational information on dental trauma was non‐existent or inadequate in many medical school, and that management protocols for TDI were inadequate . Identifying a lack of clinical practice in the literature suggests that medical doctors are generally not provided with the necessary clinical training for assessing and managing TDI within guided learning environments such as a medical school or university teaching hospital.…”

“…Identifying a lack of clinical practice in the literature suggests that medical doctors are generally not provided with the necessary clinical training for assessing and managing TDI within guided learning environments such as a medical school or university teaching hospital. For example, one report stated that 90% of medical doctors did not receive any first‐aid dental trauma training and another reported that 92.3% did not recall any clinical training in TDI management . Furthermore, a survey of medical doctors reported that for around 93% of the doctors, dental education did not feature in any part of their undergraduate medical training .…”

“…To bridge this gap in medical training, upskilling on the topic of dental trauma during medical school is important for students to understand the consequences of correctly assessing and managing TDI, retaining and replanting traumatized teeth, and the impact on patients if teeth are lost. Several studies suggest that dental traumatology should be integrated into the undergraduate (or pre‐doctoral)medical school training curriculum, to provide students with basic TDI knowledge and skills in preparation for encountering dental trauma cases in their daily practice. The provision of minimal intervention to stabilize a dental trauma condition before referring to a dentist for long‐term management is critical to achieving the best long‐term prognoses …”