German general dentists' knowledge of dental trauma

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of German general dentists on different scenarios in dental traumatology, as well as to analyse, whether there was any correlation between practitioners' perceptions of their knowledge and their actual expertise. A questionnaire containing questions on demographic data and knowledge was handed out to general dentists at the beginning of different lectures in dental traumatology given by the authors. A total number of 181 questionnaires were evaluated. Sixty-three per cent of the dentists considered their knowledge as being sufficient or comprehensive, while only 37% indicated to have fragmentary knowledge in dental traumatology. Irrespective of the self-assessment, 40% of the questions were answered correctly. Although not statistically significant, there was a trend towards slightly better knowledge for dentists whose graduation was more recent. On the basis of the findings of this study, it can be suggested that the level of knowledge among general dentists in Germany is rather poor on different scenarios regarding dental traumatology and their self-assessment is inaccurate.