DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i03.060

Pages: 940-945

There are several oral diseases which bear significant side effects on general health. Also, most children less than three years old do not receive dentist examination, during the primary care, physicians often visit the children and their parents regularly in child health clinics. The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge of specialists in Kerman on children’s oral and dental problems. In this descriptive-analytic cross- sectional study the population under study consisted of internal medicine specialists, pediatricians, Infectious disease specialists, and ENTs in Kerman. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. The questionnaire included demographic information and 17 questions about common children’s oral problems. The data was analyzed with SPSS 18 software, T-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson correlation coefficient. The mean and standard deviation of the specialists’ knowledge score on children oral and dental problems was 67.48 ±7.36. Also The statistical analyzes showed that there were no significant statistical differences between the level of knowledge of the specialists on children’s oral and dental problems and the specialists’ gender, age, clinical activity experience, and number of hours they practice per week (P Value> 0.05). In addition, the knowledge score of those physicians who visited more than 15 children per day was significantly higher than those who visited less than 10 children per day(P <0.05). The results of this study showed that the specialists’ level of knowledge in Kerman on children’s oral problems is acceptable.