Objectives: Nowadays, there is an increasing number of patients prescribed regular antithrombotics. With these long-term medications, complications like postoperative bleeding are extremely important. Despite available guidelines on this issue, disparities in approach have been noticed. The current study aimed to explore the knowledge, attitude, and practice of dental professionals associated with a dental school in Saudi Arabia regarding the management of patients with oral antithrombotic medications.
Method and materials: A cross-sectional study was conducted on institutional-based dental professionals in Saudi Arabia. Fifty-six subjects, including 12 interns, 20 demonstrators, and 24 faculty members were included in the study. A modified semistructured questionnaire comprising 20 questions was used to gather respondents' knowledge, attitude, and practice related to oral antithrombotic medications. The chi-square test was applied for computing inferential statistics. Spearman correlation coefficient was performed for significant variables.
Results: The faculty members had comparable knowledge (P = .010) as well as practice (P = .001) levels, and significantly outscored the other two groups. The interns displayed a significantly higher knowledge score over the demonstrators, whereas the reverse scenario was seen for practice scores. Interestingly, participants were frequently found to be significantly overestimating the bleeding risk for procedures falling into the "no risk" category. A significantly positive correlation regarding the professional level could be shown in all domains.
Conclusion: Professionals need to regularly update about novel anticoagulants, and should strictly comply with the established practice guidelines, thus improving the quality, safety, and value of dental health care.
Keywords: KAP (knowledge; and practice) study; antithrombotic therapy; attitude; dental professionals; novel oral anticoagulants; warfarin.