Delay in the diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer

Statement of Problem: Oral and pharyngeal cancer is one of the most mortal cancers; however, its quick diagnosis and referral is a crucial factor in enhancing the survival rate of the patients

Purpose: The aim of this study was to inspect the referral conditions and the reasons for the delay in curing the patients referred to the educational hospitals in Tehran

Materials and Method: In this retrospective -descriptive study, two hundred and fifty six files related to the oral and pharyngeal cancer were inspected. The documents were obtained from 5 educational hospitals specialized in the field of cancers. Eventually data related to the time difference between the first time of attending to lesion and diagnosing the cancer as patient's delay and until the curing as professional's delay were recorded

Results: The majority of cancers were squamous cell carcinoma [SCC]

The patient's delay was recorded in 110 files among the whole files

The mean of the time between the patients' first notice of the problem and the time visiting a primary care clinician was 270 days [range, 0-2520 days]. The mean of the time from when the patient visited a primary- care clinician to the starting time of definitive treatment was 90 days [range, 0- 270 days]

Conclusion: In this study, like other studies, SCC was the most common occurring cancer

Delays related to the patients were more than those related to the professionals. And at last, accuracy in recording the files and training the patients were recognized to be the most imperative factors to continue the treatment successfully

[Presenting the course of community dentistry as problem based learning workshop and comparing it to learning through lecture]

Nowadays, the attitudinal aspect of community dentistry course and the way in which this course is taught is critically important. The aim of this study is to compare the presentation of theoretical community dentistry course through workshops using PBL method with that of contemporary method of lecture. In this quasi experimental study, 64 dental students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences who took the course of community dentistry in second semester of academic year of 2006-2007 were entered into the survey through census. They were randomly allocated into two groups of experiment and control each including thirty two. The course of community dentistry was taught to control group through traditional method in 17 lecturing sessions; meanwhile this course was instructed to experiment group through problem based learning method. A questionnaire was used for gathering data. Data was analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics and Chi[2]. The improvement in attitude of PBL group was significant in contrast with that of traditional method group. In post-test, the mean score of knowledge and attitude of the group attending in workshop was higher than that of traditional group but the difference was not statistically significant. The mean score of satisfaction and transferring educational concepts was significantly higher in the group attending in workshop. Eighty one percent of the workshop attendees were satisfied with the method employed in the course. The new method of education has been successful in its achievements as forming a positive attitude in students and making them eager for community dentistry issues