Awareness and knowledge of prophylaxis for infective endocarditis in patients with severe rheumatic heart disease.

Prevention of infective endocardit s (IE) is mportant because it has a high mortalty rate.This study sets out to to gather information from patients who were at risk of developing IE of their knowledge of the need for prophylaxis for the disease. Forty-one black patients suffering from severe rheumatic heart disease (RHD) were interviewed. Only one patient (2.4%) was regularly visiting a dentist to maintain good oral health and only five (12.2%) had received advice about the need for antibiotic cover prior to dental extraction. The vast majority of patients (97.5%) visited a dentist only when driven by dental pain, 36.6 % had to travel for more than an hour to reach their nearest dentist, and 87.8% indicated that they brushed their teeth. It may be concluded that in this group of black patients with severe RHD there was a lack of knowledge of the need for and of measures recommended for prophylaxs against IE. In addition, attempts by the health care team to ensure good oral health and access to dental care for these patients were inadequate, if not non-existent.

Attitudes of South African oral hygienists towards compulsory community service.

UNLABELLED: Compulsory Community Service (CCS) was introduced into the health service by the government to address the shortage and maldistribution of health professionals within the public sector. The aim of this study was to assess the perceptions of oral hygiene (OH) students, registered in 2004 at the five dental universities regarding the introduction of a 1-year-long CCS. OBJECTIVES: To determine: (a) the students' socio-demographic profile and (b) their attitudes towards CCS. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was hand delivered to all OH students who were registered during 2004 at the respective dental universities. RESULTS: The study yielded a response rate of 70% (109) with the average age of participants being 21.4 years. Most students were female (94%) and more than half were White (52%). More than half (53%) did not want to perform CCS even though 75% acknowledged its' importance. The most common concern for not supporting CCS was security (89%). Ninety per cent (90%) indicated that their preferred tasks would be to engage in clinical work and oral health promotion. CONCLUSION: Although the majority of participants supported the principles of CCS, a significant number were against the introduction citing security as their main concern. Most of the students preferred to perform clinical work and preventive programmes during their CCS.