Mamoona Mujtaba, Saif-ul Islam, Tehmina Rehman, Nouman Inayat, Shahzad Ahmed.
Awareness of dental surgeons about the effects of plaque and calculus on periodontium according to latest research.
Pak Oral Dental J Jan ;35(3):497-9.

The objective of this study was to access the level of awareness among dental surgeons about the effects of plaque and calculus on periodontium according to the latest published work. This article will also discuss the methods to improve the level of awareness in dental doctors and the quality of periodontal treatment provided to the patients. It was a cross sectional observational study consisting of 200 questionnaires which were distributed among the dental surgeons in colleges of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The categories of dental surgeons involved were house surgeons, residents and general practitioners. Participants were asked to solve a specifically designed questionnaire. Questions were ask about dental deposits i.e. plaque and calculus, their role in gingivitis and periodontitis and maintenance of oral hygiene. Participants were asked to encircle one or more than one option. Results showed that 64.5% dental surgeons believed that calculus is the cause of periodontal diseases and only 33.5% said that it is the plaque which is main cause for periodontal diseases. 64.5% said that periodontitis cannot be cured in the presence of calculus, however 30.5% said that it can be cured in the presence of calculus as long as there is no plaque.Among dental surgeons 85.1% believed that calculus can be completely removed with ultrasonic scaling however 18.5% believed that 100% calculus cannot be removed even after professional ultrasonic scaling. 94.5% believed that calculus deposits are barrier in the maintenance of oral hygiene and 5.5% believed that it is not. It was concluded that the level of awareness was not good in 54.5% dental surgeons In order to improve the level of awareness institutes should provide with all the recent research based journals and articles to the doctors. Dental surgeons should do research themselves and Institutes should provide an environment that promotes their research. This approach will improve the quality of health education which in turn will influence the quality of treatment for the patients.

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