Public and professional perception of oral and maxillofacial surgery (a pilot study)

In the advanced countries, the awareness of Oral and maxillofacial surgery by both the public and medical specialties has led to rapid development and expansion of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery specialty with management of diverse and complex problems within a well defined anatomical region. In the developing countries like Nigeria, the trends are slow and this explains why majority of our patients present at very late stage when only palliative measures are the option.

The study aims to assess the level of public and professional (GMP and GDP) knowledge and awareness of oral and Maxillofacial surgery specialty.

A questionnaire was devised to assess the knowledge and awareness about the specialty of oral and maxillofacial surgery . Ninety one members of the public who were office workers, civil servants, hospital worker in Yaba local government area of Lagos state were the public respondents. The inclusion criteria was that all respondents had attained at least secondary school educational level. They were randomly chosen and had the questionnaires applied to them. Additionally, 40 General medical practitioners and 40 General dental practitioners were picked randomly from 7 local government areas of Lagos state (Yaba, Ebutte Meta, Surulere, Lagos Island, Shomolu, Kosofe and Ikeja) and the questionnaire was applied to them.

Only 5.4% of the public had heard of oral and maxillofacial surgeon before. By comparison, the corresponding figures for ENT and plastic surgeons were 40.0% and 23.1% respectively. Only 4.4% of the public had a prior treatment by an oral and maxillofacial surgeon while 86.2% did not know what a maxillofacial surgeon does. The professionals (GMP and GDP) are quite aware of who a maxillofacial surgeon is, but are less knowledgeable of new areas/subspecialties of maxillofacial surgery such as cleft lip and palate surgery, cosmetic and orthognathic surgery, implantology, craniofacial surgery. Also general Medical Practitioners (60%) views of maxillofacial surgeons work are mainly dento-alveolar in horizon.

These figures are low and it is an indication of low awareness of the specialty by the public and the professionals. While regular auditing ,publications, flow of information, leaflets about oral and maxillofacial surgery to the public, health service personnel, providers and government will improve the trends, continuous professional development Programmes (CPDP) for GDP and GMP will keep them abreast of developments in the specialty.