Evaluation of knowledge levels, application frequencies and awareness of private dentists in turkey on early diagnosis of oral cancer and biopsy method

The aim of this study is to evaluate the level of knowledge, frequency of application, and awareness of freelance dentists in Turkey about early diagnosis of oral cancer and taking a biopsy in diagnosis. The data of the study was collected from July 1st till December 1st, 2020. The universe of the study; Obtained by applying to the Turkish Dental Association; 19,225 self-employed dentists consisted of 8,074 women and 11,151 men. The sample of the study; was 376 dentists who agreed to participate in the study and met the sampling criteria. In the collection of data, it was obtained with the "Data Collection Form" created by the researchers with the knowledge of the literature. The data were analyzed and evaluated with the IBM SPSS Statistics 23 program. The mean age of the dentists participating in the study was 33.96±9.79 years. 55.3% of non-participating dentists were female (n=208) % 44,7 male (n=168), 37.2% of participating dentists had less than 5 years of clinical experience (n=140). 58.8% (n=221) of dentists take a few biopsies at the most, at the unit they work in, and 38.6% (n=145) once a year. While 81.4% (n=180) of the biopsy performers do it because of a suspicious lesion, 64.9% (n=244) do not perform a biopsy due to lack of experience. 77.1% (n=290) of dentists inform their patients about oral cancer (diagnosis/prevention) and biopsy, and 72.1% (n=271) consider the level of application of existing procedures to diagnose oral cancer insufficiently. 84.6% (n=318) want to attend training on oral cancer. The average knowledge score of dentists is 4.70±1.66. There was a significant difference in terms of other findings except for gender (p<0.05). The knowledge score of dentists with less than 5 years of clinical experience was determined as 5.09, and the knowledge score of dentists with more than 15 years of clinical experience was determined as 4.17. There is a statistically significant negative correlation between dentists' knowledge scores and age (p<0,05). As a result of the study, it was seen that there is a need for training for dentists, and it is thought that postgraduate training and applied courses on oral cancer and biopsy may be beneficial. Keywords: Oral cancer, biopsy, dentist, awareness, education.