AWARENESS OF DENTAL IMPLANTS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL AND DENTAL STUDENTS

A SURVEY STUDY

Abstract

Dental implants are becoming the everyday practice in dental office now a day. The present study was conducted to evaluate the awareness about dental implant in undergraduate medical and dental students. A cross sectional survey was done. All undergraduate students of first and second year medicine and dentistry program were approached and invited to participate in the study. A paper based self-administered questionnaire was distributed in a class room setting. A total of 277 participants (189-Medicine, 88-Dentistry) participated in the study. Response rate was 92.3%. The participants who know dental implants as treatment option for replacing missing tooth/teeth were 178(64.3%). Friends and relatives were the major source of information (55.1%). In response to question whether they will choose dental implant as replacement method for their missing tooth in future, only 131 out of 178 gave positive agreement. The main reason for refusing to implant treatment is the involvement of surgical phase in it. With this study, it can be concluded that the level of understanding and awareness among the dentistry students are higher than medicine students regarding dental implants.