Assessment of dentists' knowledge in rabat concerning the management of dental expulsion

Dental avulsion is an emergency whose prognosis depends on the promptness of the treatment. Adequate management requires the acquisition of correct knowledge, attitude and practice, thus the prognosis of the avulsed tooth should be improved, both in the short and in the long term.

This study was carried out in order to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of dentists working in the city of Rabat, Morocco regarding their management of avulsed teeth and the factors associated with this level.

A 14-item questionnaire regarding dental avulsion and its management was administered to dentists working in private practice in Rabat using convenience-sampling methodology. The data obtained were entered into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences database (IBM, SPSS version 13.0, Chicago, USA) and analysed with a significance level established at p < 0.05. The knowledge, attitude and practice level was assessed using a scoring system. Chi2 and Fisher's Exact tests were used to compare the groups.

A total of 205 dentists, representing 37% of all dentists working in the private sector in Rabat, completed the questionnaires. The level of knowledge, attitudes and practices of the dentists in this study was moderate with an overall median score of 5 [4;6]. Most of the participants answered the knowledge based questions correctly, except for those concerning the extra-alveolar period, the timing of endodontic treatment, and the type and duration of retention.

Given the lack of other studies concerning Moroccan dentists, comparison with studies carried out in other countries is difficult, hence the need to carry out more Moroccan studies in order to improve this level.