Awareness of Oral Medicine Specialty among Medical Practitioners and Medical Students in Punjab: A Survey

Abstract

Aims and objectives: To create awareness among medical practitioners and medical students about oral medicine branch in dentistry, and to assess the number of oral health cases they come around in their general practice ,and whom they refer these patients to.

Materials and methods: A self-designed questionnaire consisting of total 13 questions was created using google forms and was circulated online to medical practitioners and medical students in Punjab and results were analyzed

Results: It’s very shocking to find out that only moderate number of doctors were aware about oral medicine branch and the role of oral medicine specialty, others have just heard about it or even didn’t knew about it at all. The Results of our study also reveal that a majority of the medical practitioners have never collaborated or referred the patients to dentist despite of having a large number of patients who frequently reported oral health conditions, including tmj which was also reported frequently

Conclusion: Primary prevention of disease is the best approach but often difficult to achieve. In primary care, physicians and dentists should collaborate and share information to improve patient health outcomes.we can empower medical practitioners to recognize the importance of oral health assessments, early detection of oral diseases, and timely referrals to oral medicine specialist.