IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i9p5055-d798748.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Ricardo Roberto de Souza Fonseca

    (Biology of Infectious and Parasitic Agents Post-Graduate Program, Federal University of Pará, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
    Virology Laboratory, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Rogério Valois Laurentino

    (Virology Laboratory, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Silvio Augusto Fernandes de Menezes

    (School of Dentistry, University Center of State of Paá, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Aldemir Branco Oliveira-Filho

    (Study and Research Group on Vulnerable Populations, Institute for Coastal Studies, Federal University of Pará, Braganza 68600-000, PA, Brazil
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Ana Cláudia Braga Amoras Alves

    (School of Dentistry, Federal University of Paá, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Paula Cristina Rodrigues Frade

    (Tropical Medicine Nucleus, Federal University of Pará, Belem 66055-240, PA, Brazil
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Luiz Fernando Almeida Machado

    (Biology of Infectious and Parasitic Agents Post-Graduate Program, Federal University of Pará, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
    Virology Laboratory, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Belem 66075-110, PA, Brazil
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • 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 & L, 2022. "Digital Form for Assessing Dentists’ Knowledge about Oral Care of People Living with HIV," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-11, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5055-:d:798748
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5055/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5055/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Graziela de Carvalho Tavares da Rocha & Ricardo Roberto de Souza Fonseca & Aldemir Branco Oliveira-Filho & Andre Luis Ribeiro Ribeiro & Silvio Augusto Fernandes de Menezes & Rogério Valois Laurentino , 2022. "Evaluation of Sociodemographic Factors and Prevalence of Oral Lesions in People Living with HIV from Cacoal, Rondônia, Amazon Region of Brazil," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-10, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ricardo Roberto de Souza Fonseca & Rogério Valois Laurentino & Silvio Augusto Fernandes de Menezes & Aldemir Branco Oliveira-Filho & Paula Cristina Rodrigues Frade & Roberta Pimentel de Oliveira & Lui, 2023. "Digital Assessment of the Knowledge, Attitudes and Preparedness of Dentists towards Providing Dental Treatment to People Living with HIV in Northern Brazil," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(19), pages 1-17, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5055-:d:798748. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.