Knowledge of Dentists About Halitosis in Tehran(2004)

Statement of the problem: halitosis is a common condition. many oral diseases, as well as several systemic diseases, may cause halitosis. according to some studies the prevalence of this symptom is more than 50%. purpose: the aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of general practitioners (dentists), who work in tehran, about “halitosis”. material & methods: in this cross-sectional, descriptive study 379 dentists were evaluated. the questionnaire consisted of 15 multiple choice questions (5 choices with one of them being an “i don’t know”). there were 5 questions for evaluating knowledge about etiology of halitosis, 4 questions about pathogenesis, 4 questions on diagnosis and differential diagnosis, and 2 questions for treatment. criterion scores (of 15) calculated as sum of correct answers and ¼ for an “i don’t know” answer. spearman- brown’s reliability index was 0.8. chi-square and lawshe’s ω test were used for statistical analysis. results: mean (±standard deviation) of criterion scores was 8.06±2.15 out of 15 (median of 8; range of 2.75 to 13). the mean of correct and wrong answers were 7.3±2.3 (median of 7) and 4.7±2.4 (median of 5), respectively. according to extreme groups’ scores all items were appropriately distinctive. difficulty degree varied from 8.2% to 86.5%. conclusion: the level of general practitioners’ knowledge was relatively low. only about half of study population could achieve a criterion score more than 7.5 out of 15.