Effectiveness of a health education tool in assessing the knowledge, attitude and practice of radiation protection among dental practitioners in madurai city

Author: 
Premkumar. P, Palanivel Pandian. R, Muthu Karuppaiah, Sangeeta and Umesh

Background: Radiology has turned into a noteworthy field in diagnostic application in both medicine and dentistry. There are various dental maladies that can be diagnosed by the utilization of radiography. Since dental specialists and students operate dental x-ray unit on visit premise in their everyday clinical practice, there is a high likelihood among them to be exposed to x-rays on consistent premise. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a health education tool about radiation protection among dental practitioners of Madurai city. Objectives: To assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of radiation protection among registered dental practitioners of Madurai city followed by educate the dentist and to reassess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of radiation protection among registered dental practitioners of Madurai city. Materials and Methods: It is an Interventional Study to assess Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of radiation protection amongst Madurai dentists before and after using a Health education tool. Dentists who met inclusion criteria (n=115) were assessed about Knowledge, attitude and practice of radiation protection through a validated, Self-Administered questionnaire and health education was given to all the participants by Pamphlets. After the intervention, the questionnaire was completed by the participants. Paired t test was used for statistical analysis at a significance level of 0.05. Results: At the end of the study, the change of scores in the knowledge, attitude and practice of radiation protection among dentists was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Educational Intervention lead to change in the score of knowledge of dentists about radiation protection which was statistically significant (0.007) but the attitude and practice of ergonomics did not show any significant improvement.

Paper No: 
2266