Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of undergraduate students concerning Regenerative Endodontics.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of the students are important for the Tissue Engineering in Endodontic practice. The opinion of these future dentists would ultimately will decide the endurance of REPs as routine procedures in endodontic practice. The aim of this study was to perform a survey to identify the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of undergraduate students about regenerative endodontic procedures (REPs). METHODS: The questionnaire was obtained after cross-cultural adaptation of a questionnaire previously applied in USA and was applied to two hundred forty-eight undergraduates. Data were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: Most of the students (82.9%) agreed that regenerative therapy should be incorporated to dentistry and 87.5% of them believed that stem cells banks would be useful for the tissue regeneration. Most participants (58.1%) would like to obtain an internship/tutoring that addresses REPs and 80.8% of participants think that the major obstacle to a patient accepting a REP was the expected high cost of the treatment. The freshmen students were more optimistic about offering stem cell treatments to their patients (P≤0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The undergraduates were very optimistic about the future of REPs, stem cell banking, and tissue engineering. Although seniors demonstrated less enthusiasm towards REPs than the freshman, most students are willing to recommend these treatments to their patients.

Knowledge of primary care professionals about fluoride topics.

BACKGROUND: Scientific evidence on the benefits of fluoride was responsible for an important change in dental practice. Individual and collective actions have been planned to impact the epidemiology of oral health. However, questions around this topic persist, making discussions and researches still necessary. In this regard, the aim of this study was to verify the fluoride-related knowledge of pediatricians (PP) and dentists (DS) working in primary care, comparing related aspects such as its multiple sources of intake and dental fluorosis. METHODS: A group of PP and DS answered as self-administered questionnaire related to fluoride knowledge. PP group presented a lower level of adherence (34%) in comparison to the DS group (70%). RESULTS: Fluoride-related topics were learnt at undergraduate courses by 95,95% of dentists and 38.46% of pediatricians. Ninety-two per cent of DS and 78.57% of PP claimed to know the clinical aspects of dental fluorosis. Pediatricians tend to indicate the use of fluoridated dentifrices at any age but advise less about the right amount to be placed on the toothbrush in comparison to DS. CONCLUSIONS: Dentists and pediatricians presented limited fluoride-related knowledge. Continued education/training is encouraged and necessary at this level in order to deliver the benefits of fluoride use to populations.