Survey of U.S. dentists' knowledge and opinions about oral pharyngeal cancer.
BACKGROUND
Oral pharyngeal cancer constitutes the most life-threatening of all dental and craniofacial conditions. The U.S. five-year survival rate of 52 percent for these cancers is one of the lowest and has not changed in decades.


METHODS
The authors mailed a pretested survey to 7,000 randomly selected general dentists. They obtained information on 3,200 dentists' levels of knowledge about oral pharyngeal cancer risks and diagnostic procedures for providing an oral cancer examination, as well as about related opinions and interest in continuing education, or CE, courses on the topic. The authors carried out analyses using unweighted data; they used both bivariate and logistic analytical techniques and evaluated at a significance level of P < or = .01.


RESULTS
Based on responses to 14 questions, the average knowledge of oral cancer risks score was 8.4. About one-half of dentists surveyed knew the two most common sites of intraoral cancer and that most oral cancers are diagnosed at a late stage.


CONCLUSIONS
The reported knowledge of these dentists regarding oral cancer suggests that they are not as knowledgeable as they could be about cancer prevention and early detection and that they recognize these deficiencies. Most of the dentists were interested in oral cancer CE.


CONCLUSIONS
Dentists need to know where in the mouth to look and what types of lesions to look for to provide a comprehensive oral cancer examination.
Yellowitz
J A
JA
Department of Oral Health Care Delivery, University of Maryland at Baltimore, School of Dentistry, USA.
Horowitz
A M
AM
Drury
T F
TF
Goodman
H S
HS
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003816:Dentists, Women / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004498:Education, Dental, Continuing; D005260:Female; D005792:General Practice, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010610:Pharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce