Background. Dental education plays an important role in providing students with the opportunity to develop their evidence-based knowledge and clinical skills regarding patient-specific preventive care and caries management strategies. The aims of this study were to examine the knowledge, attitude, and self-perceived competency towards preventive dentistry among final-year dental students and to investigate their preventive practice for high-caries-risk children. Methods. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 126 dental students using a questionnaire. The IBM SPSS Statistics version 21 was used for data analysis. Results. A total of 126 students completed the questionnaire, and 63% of the respondents were female. Significant gender differences were found in the total Professional Preventive Knowledge Scale (PPKS) (p=0.016) and its subscales of the noncariogenic nutrition (p=0.015), dental hygiene/clinical examination (p<0.001), caries-preventive practice (p=0.02), and the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioral Inventory (HU-DBI) (p=0.028). Significant differences were observed in the total PPKS (p=0.003) and its subscales of the noncariogenic nutrition (p=0.043) and caries risk management (p=0.006) in terms of self-perceived need to receive education and training. Caries-preventive practice was correlated with the self-perceived competency (r = 0.279; p=0.002), the attitudes (r = 0.394; p<0.001), the total PPKS (r = 0.457; p<0.001) and its all subscales of dental hygiene and clinical examination (r = 0.425; p<0.001), noncariogenic nutrition (r = 0.410; p<0.001), and caries risk management (r = 0.184; p=0.039). The self-perceived competency was positively correlated with the total PPKS (r = 0.192; p=0.031) and its subscale of noncariogenic nutrition (r = 0.259; p=0.003). Greater self-perceived competence, more positive attitudes, and good knowledge regarding preventive dentistry were found to be important predictors of the caries-preventive practice of dental students, explaining 31% of the variance (adjusted R2 = 0.312, p<0.001). Conclusion. 40% of dental students reported educational and training needs regarding the diagnosis, caries-preventive agents, and risk-based treatment plan. These results should be taken into account by the stakeholders in developing the national core curriculum for undergraduate Turkish dental education.
Knowledge, attitudes, and training in tobacco control among dental students in a public dental school in Catalonia
