Students' attitudes and knowledge on pain and pain management in paediatric dentistry—An observational study

Abstract

Introduction: The dental and dental hygienist educational programs prepare students with knowledge on children's prophylactic pain treatment and pain management. Observing the students' understanding could help educational efforts to be more student oriented. The aim was to evaluate dental and dental hygienist students' knowledge and attitudes on pain prevention and pain management in children and adolescents, applying a multidimensional questionnaire previously used on general dental practitioners. Materials and Methods: Three hundred and four dental and dental hygienist students at Swedish universities were eligible for the survey. Written and oral information was given about the study's aim, methods, anonymity and voluntary participation. The multidimensional questionnaire included 47 closed questions. Results: The total responding rate was 65.4%; dental students 61.1% and dental hygienist students 92.8%. The total mean of knowledge and attitudes, beneficial for the treating of patient pain, varied between 57.1% and 83.3%. The biggest knowledge gap was identified regarding the items: Children under 2 years of age experience less pain than children over 2 years undergoing similar treatment(34.3%), The dentist is better suited than the parent to judge if a child is in pain (29.4%), and usually the child's pain experience diminishes when the parents are present (24.2%). Conclusion: Dental and dental hygienist students reported vastly spread knowledge and attitudes regarding pain prophylactic and pain management in children and adolescents, as measured by a multidimensional questionnaire previously used on GDPs. Knowledge on students' understanding of the young patient's pain could help educational efforts to be more student oriented. The questionnaire must be further modified and more extensively tested to meet each participating students' program level.