General Dental Practitioners' Knowledge about the Emergency Management of Dental Trauma.
BACKGROUND
The aim of this descriptive cross-sectional study was to assess the general dental practitioners (GDPs)'s knowledge regarding the emergency management of traumatic dental injuries (TDI) in Isfahan, Iran.


METHODS
In this study a two-part questionnaire consisting of 14 questions was distributed among 241 GDPs. Part 1 included seven questions focusing on personal and professional information and part 2 asked questions about seven given cases of dental traumas. One score was dedicated to each correct answer; the total score of 0 to 4 was considered as poor knowledge, while scores 5-8, 9-11 and 12-14 were assigned as moderate, good and excellent knowledge, respectively. The data were analyzed using the Student's t-test and one-way ANOVA. Spearman's and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used to determine the associations between the emergency treatment knowledge and dentists' professional information.


RESULTS
With regards to the level of GDP's knowledge, the mean score was 7.61±2.68 suggesting a moderate score; a total of 177 (73.2%) of the dentists showed a moderate level of knowledge. A significant association was found between the frequency of dental trauma cases that were encountered and treated by GDPs in their daily practice (P=0.004, r=0.2).


CONCLUSIONS
The overall knowledge of GDPs about the emergency management of TDI in the selected community was moderate.
Torabinejad Dental Research Center, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Dental School, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran;
Najmeh
N
Akhlaghi
Torabinejad Dental Research Center, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Dental School, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran;
Nosrat
N
Nourbakhsh
Torabinejad Dental Research Center, Department of Endodontics, Dental School, Member of Iranian Academy of Medical Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran;
Abbasali
A
Khademi
Dental School, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Leila
L
Karimi
Dental Emergencies; Dental Injuries; Dental Trauma; Emergency Treatment; General Dental Practitioner; Knowledge Assessment; Traumatic Dental Injuries