Evaluation of Medication-Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaw (MRONJ) Knowledge in Senior Dental and Medical Students.

Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) is a complication that occurs in patients receiving antiresorptive or antiangiogenic medical therapy. Treatment of MRONJ requires meticulous treatment planning and protocols. The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the knowledge level of final-year dental and medical students regarding MRONJ. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 154 final-year students from the faculties of dentistry and medicine. Data were collected using a structured electronic survey consisting of six sections. Data were entered and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 23, and a P-value <0.05 was considered significant. Only a few participants in the sample population had knowledge about antiresorptive or antiangiogenic drugs; the vast majority of those who were knowledgeable had been introduced to the topic during their university education. The underlying diseases that antiresorptive and antiangiogenic drugs target were unknown to the majority. Almost half of the sample could not identify any antiresorptive or anti-angiogenic drugs, and 45 (62.5%) senior students of the Faculty of Medicine and 13 (15.9%) senior students of Dentistry did not know that these drugs could cause jaw necrosis. Although the level of knowledge about MRONJ was higher among dental students across all departments in the survey, it was quite insufficient in both medical and dental students. Enhancing the knowledge of dentistry students and medicine students about MRONJ will be an important step in reducing and even preventing this public health problem, which is quite common in society.