Dentists' attitudes towards chairside medical conditions screening in a dental setting in Saudi Arabia: an exploratory cross-sectional Study

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Author(s)
Kassim, Saba
Othman, Badr
AlQahtani, Sakher
Kawthar, Alemad Mustafa
McPherson, Sterling M
Greenberg, Barbara L
Griffith University Author(s)
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2019
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Abstract

Background: Screening for medical conditions (MCs) of public health importance is a first step in disease prevention and control. Prior studies in the United States found oral health care providers (OHCPS) embrace screening for increased risk of medical conditions in the dental setting. Our objectives were to assess Saudi Arabian (SA) dentist's attitudes, willingness and perceived barriers towards implementing screening for MCs into their dental practices. Methods: A self-administered, 5-point Likert Scale (1 = very important/willing to 5 = very unimportant/unwilling) questionnaire was given to a convenience sample of 190 practicing dentists. Friedman nonparametric analysis of variance was used to compare responses within each question. Results: Of the 143 responding dentists the mean age was 31 years; 102 (71%) were men. The majority felt it was important for a dentist to screen for cardiovascular disease (98.6%), hypertension (97.9%), diabetes (97.9%), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (97.9%), and hepatitis C virus (98.6%). Respondents were willing to refer a patient to a physician (97.9%); send samples to an outside laboratory (96.1%); conduct screening that yields immediate results (96.2%); and discuss results immediately with the patient (93.7%). Respondents were willing to measure/collect blood pressure (67.2%); weight and height (63.7%); and finger stick blood (54.6%). The whole responding dentists (100%) reported time as an important barrier. Respondents were significantly more willing to refer a patient for consultation than send samples to an outside laboratory (mean ranks: 2.32, 2.81, P < 0.001); significantly more willing to measure blood pressure than take oral fluids for salivary diagnostics (mean ranks 2.22, 2.75, p = 0.003). Insurance was significantly (P < 0.05) less important barrier than time, cost, patients' willingness or liability (mean ranks 3.56, 2.63, 3.00, 2.79, 3.02, respectively). Conclusions: The majority of dentists in this study reported positive attitudes towards and willingness to perform medical screenings in their practice. Time was an important factor.

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BMC Oral Health

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19

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1

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© The Author(s). 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Subject

Dentistry

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine

Dentists

Saudi Arabia Oral health

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Kassim, S; Othman, B; AlQahtani, S; Kawthar, AM; McPherson, SM; Greenberg, BL, Dentists' attitudes towards chairside medical conditions screening in a dental setting in Saudi Arabia: an exploratory cross-sectional Study, BMC Oral Health, 2019, 19 (1)

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