A questionnaire study to evaluate the awareness, knowledge and attitude of patients towards dental implants

Completed

Conditions: This will be closed ended objective type questionnaire study prepared to assess subjects awareness, knowledge and attitude regarding implant therapy.

Registration Number: CTRI/2016/06/007000

Lead Sponsor: DrTShanti

Brief Summary: This was a structured questionnaire based study. 3questionnaires were formulated in printed and online formats. The questionnaireA evaluated the awareness, knowledge and attitude ofsubjects towards dental implants as a treatment modality. The questionnaire B assessed the influence ofpersonality traits on decision making ability. The questionnaire C assessed patientâ€™sexpectations regarding pain, anxiety, function and esthetics before and afterplacing dental implants. Inthe pilot study, we found 6 questions from questionnaire A to be non-reliable.We deleted 2 questions and rephrased 4 questions. The final questionnaire Aconsisted of 12 questions. 27 questions from questionnaire B which assessed thepsychoticism trait were excluded as they were found to be beyond the scope ofthis study and the respondents opined that questionnaire B was time consuming.We selected a Revised Eysenck Questionnaire with 57 questions for the study.

Thestudy was conducted in 4 stages.

In the first stage, objective assessment of awareness,knowledge and attitude was done. We set 50% knowledge level as the benchmarkbased on previous studies. We found a significant severe knowledge deficit inall the 3 parameters .The knowledge deficits were widelydistributed across age, gender, education and occupation groups with no significantcorrelation.

Inthe second stage, we conducted an interactive educational sessions usingaudio-visual aids. A limited numberof subjects participated in the educational sessions to improve the knowledgedeficit. There was a significant improvement in the knowledge post educationalsessions. We made an attempt to assess the influence ofpersonality traits on decision making ability of subjects who agreed and did not agree to participate in the educational sessions. We used Eysenckpersonality test for this assessment. We found that subjects in both the groupsshowed a tendency towards extrovertism and neuroticism. A single personality traitdid not influence the participation of subjects in educational sessions. Howeverdetailed analysis should be done in future studies.

Inthe third stage, we followed up the patients who agreed to undergo implanttreatment in our institution. We tried to assess if personality traitssignificantly differed among the subjects who opted for implant treatment and whodid not using Eysenck Personality Inventory Questionnaire. Subjects in both thegroups showed a tendency towards extrovertism and neuroticism. There was nosignificant influence of personality traits on decision making. However, thesample size was relatively small in both the groups. Hencethere is a need to conduct structured longitudinal studies using a largersample size to validate the results.

Wetried to assess if patientsâ€™ attitude towards dental implants changed posttreatment. This was measured in terms of pain, anxiety, functional and estheticbenefits using VAS scale. There was asignificant improvement in patientâ€™s perception of dental implant as atreatment modality. This suggests that professionally imparted knowledge canbring about a change in the attitude towards a treatment modality. Howeversample size was limited and results should be interpreted with caution.

Inthe 4th stage, we re-assessedawareness, knowledge and attitude of patients towards dental implants in thetreated group after 1 year. We found a significant improvement in the level ofinformation, subjective and objective need for information. This suggests thatthere was retention of imparted knowledge even at the end of 1 year. Hence wecan assume that knowledge reinforcement had a positive impact on thissub-population.

A single session of educational intervention usinginteractive audio-visual aid had a significant improvement in knowledge. Howeverit has been shown that frequent reinforcement of knowledge can bring abouttangible benefits for longer term. Hence we may opine that frequent innovative upgradationof educational material and establishing a good rapport with the patients canbring about a significant change in awareness, knowledge and attitude ofpatients towards dental implants.

Limitationof questionnaire based studies is that evaluation of results is based on self-reporteddata. The misinterpretation of questions and memory errors can causemeasurement errors. In our study educational intervention was limited to asmall population. Studies have shown that educational efforts should notlimited to smaller populations and target the general public. However a studywith a larger sample size and respondents with varied cultural and ethnic backgroundsis needed to validate the conclusion.

Detailed Description: Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: Completed

Sex: Female

Target Recruitment: 500

Inclusion Criteria

Age group 18 to 60 years.
Patients with one or more missing teeth other than 3rd molars.
Systemically healthy patients.
Subjects with a lie score < 5.

Exclusion Criteria

Below 18yrs of age.
Pregnant women or lactating women.
Uncontrolled diabetes or hypertension 4.
Pre existing nerve injury or paresthesia.

Study & Design

Study Type: Observational

Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
1. To determine the awareness, knowledge and attitude of subjects towards dental implants as a treatment modality among general population.	1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
personality assessment,	expectations regarding implant treatment and change in awareness, knowledge and attitude after 1 year

Trial Locations

Locations (1): Yenepoya Dental College
🇮🇳
Kannada, KARNATAKA, India
Yenepoya Dental College
🇮🇳Kannada, KARNATAKA, India
Dr Tenneti Shanti
Principal investigator
7406050967
shanti.tenneti@gmail.com