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Oral Medicine Experience and Attitudes Toward Oral Cancer: An Evaluation of Dentists Working in Primary Health Care

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Abstract

This analytical, cross-sectional, observational study aimed to evaluate the perception of dentists working at the public system of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil, regarding academic training to treat oral lesions, adoption of preventive measures for oral cancer, and attitude toward the need to perform oral biopsies. The sample consisted of questionnaires filled out by 192 dentists (153 women and 39 men) working in primary health care who participated in training activities on oral cancer diagnosis in July 2016. To enroll in the training activities, the professionals completed an online questionnaire to evaluate their perceptions regarding oral cancer issues. With respect to preventive measures, 96.88% of dentists reported performing full mouth examination, 87.50% reported providing tobacco cessation counseling, and 51.04% reported giving advice on excessive alcohol consumption. In addition, 72.40% and 44.79% of dentists considered, respectively, clinical training and theory instruction in oral medicine to be insufficient during undergraduate school. Only 8.33% reported performing biopsies in daily clinical routine, and almost 90% reported referring the patient to a specialist from the public system or universities. Lack of experience was the main reason not to perform a biopsy. The dentists in our sample recognize the importance of preventive measures for oral cancer, but few of them perform biopsies regularly. Therefore, there is a need for continuing education actions including practical training.

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Data Availability

The raw data generated in this study are available from the corresponding author on request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Rosely de Andrade Vargas for her assistance in the final revision of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Conservative Dentistry-Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Jéssica Rodriguez Strey, Michelle Roxo-Gonçalves, Bianca Dutra Guzenski, Marco Antonio Trevizani Martins, Laura de Campos Hildebrand & Vinicius Coelho Carrard

  2. TelessaúdeRS-UFRGS, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Michelle Roxo-Gonçalves, Otávio Pereira D’Ávila, Marcelo Rodrigues Gonçalves, Roberto Nunes Umpierre, Erno Harzheim & Vinicius Coelho Carrard

  3. Department of Oral Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Marco Antonio Trevizani Martins

  4. Dental Specialty/Oral Medicine Center, Porto Alegre City Hall, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Juliana Romanini

  5. Department of Oral Medicine, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Maria Antonia Zancanaro de Figueiredo

  6. Primary Health Care Service, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Marcelo Rodrigues Gonçalves

  7. Residence in Family and Community Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Roberto Nunes Umpierre

  8. School of Dentistry, Rua Ramiro Barcelos, 2492/503, Porto Alegre, RS, 90035-003, Brazil

    Vinicius Coelho Carrard

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  1. Jéssica Rodriguez Strey
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  2. Michelle Roxo-Gonçalves
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Jéssica Rodriguez Strey, Bianca Dutra Guzenski, and Vinicius Coelho Carrard. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jéssica Rodriguez Strey, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vinicius Coelho Carrard.

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Ethics Approval

This study was previously approved by the local Research Ethics Committee (protocol no. WebGPPG/HCPA 16-0548), and it was in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Patients signed informed consent regarding publishing their data.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Strey, J.R., Roxo-Gonçalves, M., Guzenski, B.D. et al. Oral Medicine Experience and Attitudes Toward Oral Cancer: An Evaluation of Dentists Working in Primary Health Care. J Canc Educ 37, 1621–1628 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-021-01999-z

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