Knowledge, Attitude And Practice Of Radiation Exposure Protection For Pediatric Patients Among Undergraduate Dental Students

Abstract

Radiography in dentistry is commonly used in modern dental health care. It acts as a diagnostic tool in identifying the physical condition of the patients. However the use of dental radiography should be carefully managed since it can cause some side effects toward normal cells and tissues especially in growing children. To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of undergraduate dental students on radiation exposure protection for pedodontic patients. A self-administered questionnaire consists of 13 questions with both ‘yes’,’no’ and multiple choice pattern was prepared to obtain information about knowledge, attitude and practice on radiation exposure protection for pedodontic patients.A total of 100 dental students were chosen as the participants. The questionnaires were assessed by manual survey. The use of dental radiograph has bee significantly enhanced over the years for better diagnosis and treatment planning .Tough the application of has been increased, there is an increased risk for unwanted exposure for both patient and operator also. In this current study, conducted among third year and final year dental students, we observed that the students are able to take proper radiograph with unnecessary retakes with years of study and practice. To conclude, it can be noted that the final year dental students were much more knowledgeable in using radiograph judicially compared to the other group of participants which belong to third year dental students. However, in terms of practise both third year and final year dental students irrespective of year of study do not follow radiation protection measures even though they were aware of it.