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 professionallydelivered
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.