Revista de Práticas Avançadas em Enfermagem

Knowledge, Awareness, and Practice of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Oral Health Care Management among Dental Students

Abstract

Vedha R Nair, Jayashri Prabakar*

Introduction: Oral health is a contemplation of social, psychological, and physiological factors which are important for our quality of life. CAM represents the group of various medical and health care practices, systems, and products which are not regarded to be a part of conventional medicine. It is considered to be a cheaper and much less side effect. Hence the aim of the study is to assess the knowledge, awareness, and practice of Complementary and Alternative medicine for oral health care management among dental students. Materials and Method: Data collection was done by questionnaire survey. Study population contains 100 interns and postgraduates from four different dental colleges. Data was entered in Microsoft excel sheet after collection and was analysed using SPSS software. Descriptive statistics were expressed by means of number, frequency, and percentage. Chi-square test was used to find the association between year of study and Number of responses provided by the participants. Results: The present study reported that 30% of interns and 24% of postgraduates had knowledge regarding oriental medicine/CAM. 30% of interns and 19% of postgraduates knew that hypnosis dentistry can be used to treat anxious patients. 35% interns and 30% postgraduates knew acupuncture can be used as anesthetic and analgesic. Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study it can be concluded that there was more awareness among interns than post graduates, many studies conducted showed some similar and some opposing results to the present study.