Patient and parental awareness of the importance of immediate management of traumatised teeth

The purpose of this study was to assess patient and parental awareness of t he importance of immediate management of traumatised teeth. A three-part qu estionnaire comprising questions on demographic data, attitude and knowledg e was distributed to patients or accompanying parents who presented to the principal author for treatment in an 8-week period. One hundred and fifty-s even respondents with a mean age of 31.1 years participated in the study. O nly 30% of the respondents recalled having had precious experience of denta l trauma. The majority of the respondents, especially those with a higher e ducational background, had a positive attitude, expressing enthusiasm for p ublic education on emergency management of dental trauma (85%). The availab ility of an emergency service during office hours was known by 71% of the r espondents while only 26% were aware of the after-office-hour emergency ser vice. Participants generally had a better concept of management of avulsed teeth (63%) compared to that of fractured teeth (35%). Knowledge on some cr itical aspects of the handling of avulsed teeth was poor (6%). Using multip le logistic regression analysis, it was found that the respondents' attitud e tended to be influenced by their educational background (P = 0.08). In ad dition, subjects with higher education were more knowledgeable regarding th e emergency service available during office hours (P = 0.05) and the concep t of management of fractured teeth (P = 0.02). Educational background appea red to influence the level of awareness of the importance of immediate mana gement of traumatised teeth.