title: Attitude towards oral biopsy among general dentists in Murcia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study explores the attitude of general dentists towards oral biopsy as a diagnostic method in application to oral lesions.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was administered by mail to 520 general dentists in the Autonomous Community of Murcia (Spain), addressing a number of items: sociodemographic parameters, years of professional experience, the diagnosis of mucosal lesions, the performance of oral biopsies, and their histopathological evaluation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The global response rate was 32.7% (55.9% for males and 43.5% for females), with a global mean age of 35.9 years. Of note is the fact that the group with least professional experience did not include oral biopsy as diagnostic procedure, with statistically significant differences versus the other groups of experience (p=0.048)
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The assimilation of oral biopsy as a diagnostic procedure is seen to increase with the number of years of professional experience.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain. majornet@um.es
authors.forename: Pía
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: López Jornet
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Velandrino Nicolás
authors.forename: Yolanda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Martínez Beneyto
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fernández Soria
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001706:Biopsy / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005792:General Practice, Dental; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009055:Mouth / Q000473:pathology*; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D013030:Spain; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric