Evaluation of dentists’ and dentistry faculty students’ knowledge about HIV/AIDS and approaches to the HIV/AIDS patients*

Abstract

Background: This study is conducted to measure theknowledge of dentists and dentistry students about AIDS andto evaluate their perspectives, attitudes and behaviors towardsHIV-infected individuals.Material and Methods: This study was conducted on DicleUniversity Faculty of Dentistry 4th and 5th grade students anddentists. As a result of 2 different questionnaires, evaluationsare made on the knowledge of dentists and students about thedisease, how they behave towards the patients and theirdeficiencies. One Way ANOVA test is used for statisticalanalysis.Results: When the results of the first questionnaire wereconsidered in the evaluation of the data, the most correctlyanswered question is ‘‘It is not possible to infect HIV to thepatient from healthcare provider’ with 93.6%“disagree”response and the most incorrectly answered question is ‘If thepatient's HIV antibodies are positive, the patient is absolutelyimmune’ with 30.8% “disagree” response.Conclusions: According to the surveys and analysis dentistsand dentistry faculty students have knowledge about HIV/ AIDSbut it is not sufficient. Their negative perception of thesepatients need to be worked on. For this reason, HIV infectionrelated trainings should be organized for dentists and dentistrystudents