Knowledge and Attitude of Undergraduate Dental Students Regarding Anaphylactic Reaction in Islamabad

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the knowledge and attitude of undergrad dental students regarding anaphylactic reaction associated with local anesthesia used in the dental procedures.

Methodology: This cross sectional Questionare based study was conducted in School of Dentistry, Islamabad from June 2023 to September 2023. Questionnaire regarding knowledge and attitude of undergrad dental students toward handling the anaphylactic shock/reaction was distributed among these students. Independent T test was employed for statistical analysis where p. value for significance was <0.05.

Results: 250 undergrad dental students that participated in this study ranged between 20-23 years of age on average. These undergrad dental students worked in clinical wards and used local anesthesia for dental treatments of the patients in routine. Local anesthesia Lignocaine was preferred by 112 (91.8%) male undergrad dental students and 120 (93.8%) female undergrad dental students while other type of local anesthesia used by male and female undergrad dental students was 10 (8.2%) and 8 (6.3%). The overall knowledge of these undergraduate dental students regarding anaphylactic reaction was much better in comparison to their practical attitude that involved the adequate management of this disease (p value=0.001).

Conclusions: The current study concluded that undergrad dental students had enough theoretical knowledge regarding anaphylactic shock but lacked in the practical attitude to manage it adequately without any fear of severe consequences. This practical attitude can be enhanced by pursing the undergrad dental students for undergoing manual hands on courses, workshops and awareness programs.