Knowledge and Attitude of Dentists Toward Geriatric Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The knowledge and attitude of dentists toward geriatric patients are crucial for providing optimal oral healthcare to this growing population. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine the association between dental professionals' experience and their knowledge and attitude scores toward geriatric patients. A comprehensive search was conducted across multiple databases to identify relevant epidemiological and cross-sectional studies. The selected studies underwent a rigorous screening process, and data extraction was performed systematically. The Assessment of the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews tool was used to assess the risk of bias in the included studies. Three studies were ultimately selected for further analysis. For dental professionals with less than five years of experience, no significant association was found between knowledge scores and experience (odds ratio (OR) = 1.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.71 to 1.41). However, dental professionals with 5 to 10 years, greater than 10 years, and greater than 15 years of experience showed a statistically significant association between knowledge scores and experience (OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.48 to 0.77; OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.54 to 0.89; OR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.44 to 0.79, respectively). The overall analysis indicated a significantly positive association between knowledge scores and experience among dental professionals (OR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.59 to 0.78). The findings provide evidence of a positive association between dental professionals' experience and their knowledge and attitude scores toward geriatric patients. The findings highlight the importance of experience in enhancing dental professionals' understanding and approach to geriatric dental care. These results have implications for improving dental education, training, and policy development to better address the oral health needs of older adults.