Awareness of restorative dental treatment as shown by nursing students in Ibadan

Aim of the study. To determine the level of awareness
of nursing students in Ibadan, South Western Nigeria,
of restorative dental treatment. Material and methods.
Well-structured pre-tested questionnaire was submitted
to the three randomly selected schools testing the
level of awareness of dental treatment and restorative
materials. Results. Of the 302 respondents, almost all
(99.0%) were aware of the dental profession, but as
many as 77.5% of them had never visited a dentist.
The majority (87.4%) were aware of the possibility
of replacement of a missing tooth, only 66.2% were
aware of the possibility of restoration of a broken
tooth, while a little above half (53.6%) were aware of
the possibility of restoration of a discoloured tooth.
Only 30 respondents (9.9%) believed that a broken
tooth can improve facial beauty, five respondents
(1.7%) believed that missing teeth can improve facial
beauty, while only 42 respondents (13.9%) believed
that both broken and missing teeth can improve facial
beauty (p–value<0.0001). More than four-fifth of
the respondents (84.4%) knew the use of removable
dentures, 25.2% knew the use of dental amalgam,
17.2% were aware of a dental bridge, 23.5% knew the
use of composite, 27.5% knew the use of dental crown
in restorative dentistry. Conclusion. The majority of
respondents had never visited a dentist for any routine
dental check-up. Many of them have poor knowledge of basic restorative dental treatment; this is a strong
indicator that they lack the basic knowledge of clinical
dentistry. In order to improve the clinical acumen
and versatility of nurses, regular training courses on
basic clinical dentistry should be incorporated into
the curriculum of all kinds of nursing programs in
Ibadan, and even in Nigeria at large. This will help
in empowering nurses in educating, and counselling
of individuals with oral health problems to seek early
and professionally-delivered oral health care. This
eventually will go a long way in reducing the prevalence
of oral health problems and the complications of
delayed dental treatment that is commonly reported in
Nigerian population.