Dentists' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antithrombotic drugs: pre-post test study.

BACKGROUND

Dentists often treat patients taking antithrombotic medications. It's important to manage these medications carefully in dental clinics to reduce the risk of bleeding or blood clots. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of training by a clinical pharmacist on dentists' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antithrombotic drugs.

METHOD: This pre-post test study was conducted in Oral and Dental Health Centers (Istanbul/Turkey). A self-structured questionnaire consisting of 49 questions prepared by the researchers was used. This questionnaire was administered twice in a face-to-face setting, before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the 45-minute training given by the clinical pharmacist.

RESULTS

The median age of 238 dentists was 37.9 (27-58) years and 76% were female. The participants' knowledge of antithrombotic drugs was low (13.2%) but increased significantly after the training (91.7%) and Cronbach alpha value of this section was found to be 0.684. Before the training, only 13.2% of the participants believed that aspirin treatment should not be stopped before dental procedures. After the training, this percentage increased significantly to 89.3%. Similarly, the number of participants who correctly answered the question "Should warfarin be stopped before dental treatment?" also increased significantly from 13.2% before the training to 55.6% after the training (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The data obtained in our study showed that dentists' knowledge and attitudes toward antithrombotic drugs improved significantly after receiving training from the clinical pharmacist.