Patients’ Awareness of a Dental Implant as an Option for Tooth Replacement: a Survey in Alkharj Province, Saudi Arabia

Objectives: To evaluate patient awareness's and source of information about dental implant as an option of treatment to replace the missing teeth, in Alkharj Province Saudi Arabia. Methods: Cross-sectional study performed to access the level of awareness regarding dental implants. Self-explanatory questionnaire was designed and distributed in two places: Military Hospital and College of Dentistry (Prince Sattam Bin Abdul-Aziz University) both in Alkharj, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaires were handed to the patients during their regular dental visits. The quantitative data was entered onto computer for analysis using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The Student's t-test and ANOVA test were used to test the significance level (p< 0.05). Result: Out of 360 persons approached, 355 answered the questionnaire. 276 respondents heard about dental implant (77.7%) and 79(22.3%) persons they did not heard about dental implant. 105 (32.31%) of the patient heard about dental implant from newspaper Magazine, 91 (28%) from friends, 75 (23.08%) from dentist and 54 (16.61%) from other patients. Answer of the respondents to question what the advantages you know about replacing missing teeth with dental implants, 170 (44.5%) believed that it provided a higher esthetic, 153(40.05%) improve function, 32(8.38%) high success rate and 27 (7.07) no risk. Conclusion: Among the participants, the awareness level was more than seventy percent and media were the major sources of information. Patient are willing to know more about dental implant and the dentists should give more detailed information to the patients about dental implants and different treatment options that implant will provide.