Attitude towards preventive dentistry and practice of dentists working in health centers and community hospitals in Bangkok and suburb.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the health center and community hospital in Bangkok and suburb dentists' attitude and practice towards preventive dentistry. The results from this study could be used as guideline to develop the oral health promotion and preventive system in urban area. Mail questionnaires were used to collect data from dentists of health center and community hospital in Bangkok and suburban area (108 dentists), response rates were 61%. The results showed that most of these dentists desired working in Bangkok and suburban area because they wanted to be close to their families, only 12.1 percent of them favored preventive practice. At least 50 percent of these dentists indicated that the preventive dentistry curriculum of the Faculty of Dentistry did not have applicable contents for community working such as social sciences, epidemiology, research, planning, evaluation and etc. Their practice was more curative than preventive. The most frequent dental services performed by these dentists were extraction and filling. The preventive attitude of these dentists was positive, but no correlation with their practice (p>0.05).