engleski

Dentist’s attitudes in providing oral health care to older people

Introduction: This study was aimed at evaluated the attitudes of dentist in providing oral health services to elderly people, their opinion and barriers they experienced in rendering care to them. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted by online questionnaire among dentist’s population (N=463). Respondents were divided depending on whether or not they attended the Geriatric dentistry course during their education, and the difference in their attitudes were observed (15 questions on Likert scale) with the Chi-Squared Test (P < 0.05). Results: Statistically significant difference in the personal and professional data of the respondents was noticed based on their gender (P ≤ 0.001), age (P ≤ 0.001), academic degree (P = 0.004) and practice setting (P = 0.014) depending whether they attended Geriatric dentistry courses. Conclusion: From the results of this study, it can be concluded that there are some differences in opinion between dentists about providing oral health care to older people. Geriatric dentistry courses in dentist’s education should have a significant role in providing knowledge for working with the elderly population. Geriatric dentistry should be included in the undergraduate curricula of dental schools.

geriatric dentistry ; attitudes ; dentist ; older people

nije evidentirano