Dental Services and their Awareness and Utilization among the Health Care Workers in a South Indian District - A Cross Sectional Study.

AIM: The present research was carried out to evaluate the amount of usage of dental care opportunities and also to assess the problems faced by health care workers (HCWs) of a south Indian district in using dental services.

METHODOLOGY: This study had around 500 participants who belonged from various health care sectors who were selected with the help of multistage sampling. The data obtained from this cross-sectional research was analysed statistically using SPSS 22.0.

RESULTS

It was noticed that around 35% of participants went for a dentist's appointment in past 1 year where male members predominated (45%). One of the commonest reasons for utilizing dental care services was pain as an dental emergency factor (70%). Other reasons were dental caries (18%) restoration, breakage of tooth (10%) and a host of other factors (11%). Around 350 participants felt that going to the dentist was only necessary when there was an emergency (61%).

CONCLUSION

The target population less frequently visited the dentist to maintain their teeth as they believed when you have pain, that is the time you go to a dental specialist.