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Original Article
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| A descriptive study on the perception of health care workers to dental treatment at a tertiary hospital in Lagos, Nigeria | ||||||
| Oyapero Afolabi1, Ogunbanjo VO2 | ||||||
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1Department of Preventive Dentistry, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos.
2Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria. | ||||||
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| Oyapero A, Ogunbanjo VO. A descriptive study on the perception of health care workers to dental treatment at a tertiary hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. Edorium J Dent 2016;3:30–39. |
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Abstract
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Aims:
Many oral diseases have a strong connection with systemic conditions while effective delivery of health care often requires the combined efforts of all health professionals. Due to the problems of access to dental care, patients may consult other primary health care providers for their oral health needs. This study was undertaken to assess the oral health knowledge, attitude and practices among various health professionals working in Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, (LASUTH).
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the LASUTH Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. A stratified probability sampling method was used to categorize the different health professionals in LASUTH and about 20% of the health workers in each category were enlisted using the nominal roll as a sampling frame. A total of 148 questionnaires were administered during the study on subjects who met the inclusion criteria and gave their informed consent. Results: Females and younger respondents were more likely to visit the dentist than males for routine dental check-up even though the association was not significant. The oral health knowledge and attitude among the various health professionals surveyed in LASUTH was found to be inadequate even though Medical doctors had the overall best responses. There was a significant difference between the attitude of the Medical Doctors and other health professionals on questions about extractions (p = 0.024); dental treatments (p = 0.008); dental fillings (p = 0.000); artificial teeth (p = 0.013); bleeding gums (p = 0.002) and replacement of lost teeth (p = 0.004). Conclusion: All health professionals can promote oral health by disseminating accurate oral health messages, being appropriate role models by paying attention to their own oral health, encouraging appropriate dental visits and participating in oral health promotion within their scope of duties. It is also recommended that dental items feature more frequently in hospital ground rounds and clinical meetings of to address this deficit. | |
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Keywords:
Attitude to dentistry, Dental treatment, Health care workers, Oral disease, Oral health knowledge
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Author Contributions:
Oyapero Afolabi – Substantial contributions to conception and design, Acquisition of data, Analysis and interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published Ogunbanjo V.O. – Substantial contributions to conception and design, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published |
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Guarantor of submission
The corresponding author is the guarantor of submission. |
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Source of support
None |
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Conflict of interest
Authors declare no conflict of interest. |
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Copyright
© 2016 Oyapero Afolabi et al. This article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and original publisher are properly credited. Please see the copyright policy on the journal website for more information. |
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