title: Evaluation of General Dentists' and Dental Specialists' Knowledge about Oral Cancer in South Khorasan-Iran 2014.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oral cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers and one of the top ten causes of death in the whole world. Most oral cancers are diagnosed at late stages. Since dentists play a critical role in early detection of oral cancer, they should be knowledgeable and skillful in oral cancer diagnosis. The aim of this study was to survey dentist knowledge about oral cancer in Southern Khorasan Province.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with dentists who participated in an in-service educational program at the Faculty of Dentistry of Birjand University of Medical Sciences in spring 2014. A questionnaire including demographic information with 11 questions regarding oral cancer was prepared. The participants were required to be complete the questionnaires within a specific time span. The data were analyzed using SPSS 15 software by t-test and one-way ANOVA at 0.05 confidence level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 73 dentists out of 80 answered the questionnaires - 36 (49.3%) were females and 37 (50.7%) were males. Total mean score of knowledge was 7.91 ± 1 of 11. Mean scores of knowledge of male and female participants were 7.70 ± 1.83 and 8.13 ± 1.94 respectively. Mean knowledge score of general dentists was 7.41 ± 1.79 and of dental specialists was 9.44 ± 1.0 In spite of higher knowledge score of women compared to men and general dentists compared to dental specialists, these differences were not statistically significant (p=0.09). Tukey testing showed a significant difference between groups with 1-4 years of experience (8.74) and over twenty years of experience (6.50) ( p=0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Considering the good knowledge level of young dentists and the specialists and the importance of early diagnosis of oral cancer, it seems necessary to pay more attention to academic education for dentistry students, as well as holding retraining courses for experienced dentists, so that their knowledge not be reduced over time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicin, School of Dentistry and Dental Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Scinces, Birjand, Iran E-mail : sdent22@bums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Narjes
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akbari
authors.forename: Vajehallah
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Raeesi
authors.forename: Tahereh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Khazaei
authors.forename: Khaironnesa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ramezanzadeh
authors.forename: Sediqe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ebrahimipour
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology*; D004497:Education, Dental; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013039:Specialties, Dental; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires