Awareness on different clinical specialties in dentistry among Indians

Oral health is one of the important aspects of overall systemic well-being. Currently distinct oral health specializations are available to combat different oral health problems. General population with the constraints of his barriers is set back to remain ignorant of such developments. Unawareness seems to be more reasonable explanation. The study was conducted to assess the awareness of general population regarding dentists and their specialties pertaining to their demographic details and educational status. The subjects were interviewed with structured questionnaire collecting information relating to their demographic details, dental visiting habits and their perception and awareness for various dental specialties. The data was collected using structured questionnaire. Chi-square test was applied to assess the association between awareness about different dental specialties to education level, place of residence and no of dental visits. Among 200 subjects interviewed, 136 (68%) had undergone dental treatment earlier. About 48.6% (66/136) of subjects among them had visited a dental set-up more than twice having more than one appointment with the dentist. Maximum number 54.4% (45/136) of subjects visited a private dental clinic for the dental treatment. A private hospital was the least relied set up by the subject's i.e 1.5% (2/136). About 84% (68/200) of the studied population was totally unaware of any specialties in dentistry, while 4.5% (9/200) had a vague account for the same. Irrespective of the education status and area of residence, the awareness among general population regarding different dental specialties was observed to be quite low.