TOOTH AVULSION MANAGEMENT: STATE OF DENTAL STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE

Aim: This study was conducted to determine the knowledge of undergraduate dental students regarding the management of avulsed teeth at the College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: A self-administered English-language questionnaire contained of 17 close ended questions with two parts: The first part consisted of questions about demographic and professional data. The second part of the questionnaire consisted of questions to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of the students on managing avulsed traumatic injuries. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS. The level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.
Results: Data were collected from 303 students with response rate of 83.4%. About 80% of the students had a previous knowledge about dental trauma. Most of the students 92.7% were able to define avulsion, correct answers were significantly more with advanced academic level
(P = 0.003). Majority of the students (80.5%) can distinguish between primary and permanent teeth. About half of the study group (46.2%) correctly answered the ideal time for re-implantation, more female students were responded correctly with p = 0.000 if compared to male students. Most of the students (83.8%) selected milk as a storage medium, almost 15% selected saliva, 14.5% selected Hank’s balanced salt solution (HBSS) and 8.3% selected saline. Only 19.8% answered the flexible splint used for splinting avulsed teeth with significant difference in different academic level and gender p < 0.05.
Conclusion: The present study reflects insufficient knowledge of dental students in management of avulsed teeth. In some points the students’ knowledge needs to be improved through enhancing and providing different kinds of education methods in undergraduate courses.