Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Pediatricians about Effects of Pediatric Drugs on Oral Health: A Survey Study

Özet

Aim: Pediatricians may be able to play an important and effective role in providing forward guidance on children’s oral health. When they makethe right recommendations, the erosive, cariogenic and staining effects of medications are predicted to reduce. The objective of this research isto assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of pediatricians concerning the effects of medication use on oral health.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive survey study was conducted on pediatricians in İstanbul, Turkey. Data were collected bydistributing a questionnaire to pediatricians working in hospitals and private clinics. Differences between the proportions of categories wereassessed using the chi-square tests. For the differences between two ordinal variables, rank sums nonparametric test Mann-Whitney U testwas used for quantitative analysis.Results: 54.3% of the responders informed patients about oral health after prescribing drugs. Only 27% of the pediatricians felt knowledgeableabout informing parents about oral care after drug use. Only 17.7% of them agreed with the statement that their training about oral healthduring medical school/pediatrics is adequate.Conclusion: There is a need to organize the curriculum relating to oral health in pediatrics education and to increase the level of knowledge ofpediatricians through educational programmes.