Diffusion of knowledge in dentistry. The pit and fissure sealant conferences.
This paper presents data on the diffusion to dentists of information from the May 1981 American Dental Association conference and December 1983 National Institutes of Health (NIH) conference on pit and fissure sealants. A mail survey was sent to 521 (72.2% returned) randomly selected dentists in general practice and all 47 (76.6% returned) pedodontists in the State of Washington. Approximately 70% of the dentists were aware that the conferences had taken place and a little over 50% were aware of the conference recommendations. Awareness was related to: being a pedodontist, number of continuing education hours taken, number of referred journals read, and being an officer in a dental organization.
D000571:American Dental Association; D001364:Awareness; D003142:Communication; D003245:Consensus Statements as Topic; D003815:Dentists; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D010895:Pit and Fissure Sealants; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States