Special care dentistry perception among dentists in Jakarta: An online survey study

PLoS One. 2021 Apr 7;16(4):e0249727. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249727. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Special Care Dentistry (SCD) or Special Needs Dentistry is a branch of dentistry concerned with the oral health of people with a variety of medical conditions or limitations that require more than routine delivery of care. There were reports on oral status of special care patients and special interest group for SCD dentists in Indonesia has existed. However, there was not perception report on SCD amongst dentists in Jakarta. This paper will describe the perception of dentists in Jakarta towards SCD. A cross-sectional questionnaire, translated and cross adapted to Indonesian, was distributed online through Whatsapp to dentists registered in Jakarta late 2019. Quantitative data was analyzed using statistical software for proportion and correlation using Chi-Square test. The questionnaire explored dentists' perception towards SCD. A total of 250 dentists participated in this study, of them 173 general practitioners and 77 specialist dentists. Most respondents reported that they did not have SCD component during undergraduate dental school and did not provide treatment to patients with special needs in their clinical practice. Most respondents have poor perception of SCD, however, most of the respondents showed motivation and interest towards SCD training. Dentists in Jakarta involved in this study had poor perception of SCD. More efforts should be performed to improve SCD education and awareness.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Chi-Square Distribution
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Dentistry / statistics & numerical data*
  • Dentists / statistics & numerical data*
  • Female
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
  • Humans
  • Indonesia
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Motivation / physiology
  • Oral Health / statistics & numerical data
  • Perception / physiology*
  • Practice Patterns, Dentists' / statistics & numerical data*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Young Adult

Associated data

  • Dryad/10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqnsg

Grants and funding

MM received fundings from Universitas Indonesia through International-Indexed Publication Grant (PUTI Universitas Indonesia NKB-1921/UN2.RST/HKP.05.00/2020) https://ui.ac.id/en/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.