Objective: Health professionals are likely to support oral health and encourage the patients to follow appropriate dental care. Oral systemic disease connection awareness and practice was evaluated among medical and dental practitioners
Methods: A cross-sectional study on 127 medical and dental practitioners of city Faisalabad, Pakistan was conducted. 240 medical and dental practitioners were approached for study, all practitioners rendering a consent were recruited in study and their response was collected on a close-ended questionnaire.
Results: 83% of respondents knew that a relationship exists between oral and systemic health, but application of this knowledge is limited. 59% medical practitioners were in practice to look for dental conditions in medical patients in comparison to 79% dental practitioners who look into medical conditions while examining dental patients. Medical and dental professionals with postgraduate qualification had better awareness and were applying their knowledge in daily practice. Females were better in level of awareness and practice in this study sample.
Conclusion: Level of awareness and practice about relationship of oral-systemic disease connections was moderate among the study sample, dentists showed better awareness and practice. A need is felt to improve collaboration between dental and medical profession in order to enhance patient care.
Key words: Oral-Systemic diseases, awareness, medical and dental practitioners
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