title: Dental care knowledge and practice of a group of health workers in benin city, Nigeria.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The correlation between knowledge of dental care knowledge and its practice varies among the different health professionals.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the following study is to assess the knowledge and practice of health workers in a private medical health facility on dental care.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on the health workers in Faith Medical Center, Benin City, Nigeria. A self-administered questionnaire, containing 31 open and closed questions was used for data collection to assess their knowledge and practice of dental care. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 (Chicago, IL, USA) and WIN PEPI software version 11.15.
  
  
  RESULTS
  None of the respondents had a poor knowledge of dental care, but majority had poor practice. The pattern of distribution of knowledge and practice of dental care observed in this study was not significantly affected by age, gender, occupation and working experience. The entire respondents knew that bleeding from the gum is not normal and 96.2% (75/78) gave correct causes of bleeding gums. Majority 88.5% (69/78) also knew that tooth decay is not normal, but fewer 66.6% (52/78) knew the correct causes of tooth decay. Only 37.2% (29/75) of the respondents took correct action after experiencing a toothache (i.e., consulting a dentist for proper management) and majority 80.8% (63/78) and 76.1% (60/78) still make use of toothpicks, which is considered as potentially harmful and frequently consume cariogenic diet respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a good knowledge of dental care, but poor oral health practices among the studied health workers. Oral health education to correct their improper practices is therefore highly advocated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental, Faith Mediplex, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Vo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Amuh
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Oh
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Okojie
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Ao
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ehizele
keywords: Dental care; Health workers; Knowledge; Practice