Abstract
Background: There are various beliefs concerning oral and dental health among people, some of which do not have any scientific basis, thereby hindering the achievement of an optimal level of health in the community. This study explored attitude of clients presenting to School of Dentistry in Yazd, Iran, concerning some wrong beliefs towards oral health and dentistry in 2023.
Methods: In this descriptive-cross-sectional study, 300 clients who referred to Yazd Dental School in 2023 were selected by convenient sampling method. Data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire, imported into SPSS25, and analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, and linear regression.
Results: A total of 227 women and 73 men with a mean age of 31.45±12.17 years participated in this study. In terms of severity, the mean score of wrong attitude in the studied community was 44.83±6.03 in the average range. In terms of extent, 46.3 % of people had an wrong attitude on average. There was no statistically significant difference between the mean score of wrong attitude according to gender, types of age groups, types of occupations and media used in each of the subgroups. Yet, the difference between the mean score of wrong attitude of participants according to education level was significant. Linear regression suggested that none of the studied variables could significantly predict participants' wrong attitude towards dental treatments.
Conclusions: Based on the results of the present study, the amount of wrong beliefs about dentistry in the studied community was moderate in terms of severity and extent. Firstly, face-to-face advice is more powerful in strengthening people's attitude towards oral and dental health compared to technology; secondly, oral and dental health practitioners do not properly use the high capacity of media and especially social networks to inform the community. In the long term, the negative impact of wrong beliefs on the oral and dental health of the community can be gradually corrected with proper education at different levels, especially during education and at family level, and improve the health beliefs of the community. In the short and medium term, dentists can use the opportunity of mass media to increase awareness and improve the health beliefs of the community.