Digital Form for Assessing Dentists’ Knowledge about Oral Care of People Living with HIV

Ricardo Roberto de Souza Fonseca, Rogério Valois Laurentino, Silvio Augusto Fernandes de Menezes, Aldemir Branco Oliveira-Filho, Ana Cláudia Braga Amoras Alves, Paula Cristina Rodrigues Frade and Luiz Fernando Almeida Machado
Additional contact information
Ricardo Roberto de Souza Fonseca: Biology of Infectious and Parasitic Agents Post-Graduate Program, Federal University of Pará, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
Rogério Valois Laurentino: Virology Laboratory, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
Silvio Augusto Fernandes de Menezes: School of Dentistry, University Center of State of Paá, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
Aldemir Branco Oliveira-Filho: Study and Research Group on Vulnerable Populations, Institute for Coastal Studies, Federal University of Pará, Braganza 68600-000, PA, Brazil
Ana Cláudia Braga Amoras Alves: School of Dentistry, Federal University of Paá, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
Paula Cristina Rodrigues Frade: Tropical Medicine Nucleus, Federal University of Pará, Belem 66055-240, PA, Brazil
Luiz Fernando Almeida Machado: Biology of Infectious and Parasitic Agents Post-Graduate Program, Federal University of Pará, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-11

Abstract: Oral lesions are usually the first sign of HIV infection. The present study aimed to determine the level of the knowledge of dentists on the dental care needs of People Living with HIV (PLWH). This cross-sectional study was conducted between February and May 2021, in the Brazilian state of Pará, during which a total of 51 dentists received an anonymous digital form (Google ® Forms Platform) composed of four blocks of discursive, dichotomous, and multiple-choice questions. The questions referred to various aspects of the dental care needs of PLWH, together with data on the professional activities of the dentists. After signing the term of informed consent, the dentists were divided into six subgroups according to the time (in years) since completing their bachelor’s degree in dentistry. The data were presented as descriptive statistics and percentages, and then analyzed using the Kappa test. Most (70.6%; 36 of 51) of the dentists were female, the mean age of the dentists was 32.5 years, and a majority (80.2%) were based in the city of Belem; the mean time since graduation was 8.5 years, with 22 (43.1%) having more than 5 years of professional experience, and 31 (60.8%) having graduated from a private dental college. Just over half (51%) of the 51 dentists had completed graduate courses, and the most common dental specialty was orthodontics (19.6%). Most (74.5%) of the dentists work in the private sector, 38 (74.5%) claimed to have already provided oral care to PLWH, and 43 (84.3%) had access to specialist content on the oral care needs of PLWH. In terms of the knowledge of the dentists with regard to the oral care needs of PLWH, four of the ten diagnostic questions obtained more inadequate answers than expected, whereas the final two questions (11–45.1% and 12–31.4%) demonstrated that many of the dentists adopt unnecessary modifications in their oral care protocol for PLWH, due to a fear of contamination. Overall, our results demonstrate a frequent lack of knowledge, especially with regard to the oral healthcare needs of PLWH, which may account for many of the stigmas that persist in the dental care of this vulnerable group.

Keywords: community dentistry; oral diseases; HIV; public health; oral health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5055/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5055/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5055-:d:798748

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().