Education's impact on primary care dentists’ confidence in treating patients with special health care needs

Abstract

AbstractIntroductionSpecial care dentistry (SCD) is still developing in Chile. This study aimed to clarify whether primary care dentists are treating patients with special health care needs (SHCN), to know if they have had previous education on SCD (on an undergraduate or postgraduate level), whether their training level impacts their confidence when treating patients with SHCN, and to assess their opinion on SCD as a relevant topic in undergraduate education.MethodsA survey was answered by 149 primary care dentists working for the National Health Service of the Valparaiso region in Chile, including information on their daily clinical practice, undergraduate, and postgraduate training in SCD, and their opinions on them.ResultsMost interviewees would like to complement their training and believed that SCD should be formally incorporated into undergraduate programs. There was a significant association between confidence in treating patients with SHCN and the rating of their undergraduate training, and between confidence and the number of hours of continuous development courses.ConclusionMost primary care dentists treat patients with SHCN regularly. Therefore, including training in the undergraduate curriculum and afterward becomes necessary to increase their confidence when facing this challenging group of patients.