Awareness, Attitude and Knowledge of Emergency Management of Avulsed Tooth in Urban India

Aims and Objective Dental avulsion is the complete and total displacement of tooth from its socket. An avulsed tooth can possibly be re-implanted. There is a need to spread awareness amongst the population who are unaware of such treatment modalities. The present study aimed at investigating knowledge, attitude and awareness amongst population in Navi Mumbai about emergency management of avulsed tooth. An additional aim was to spread the correct knowledge and emergency protocol to be followed in case of dental avulsion. Materials and Methods A contact survey was conducted with a sample size of 504 patients in the Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, D. Y Patil University, School of Dentistry, Navi Mumbai regarding their knowledge and awareness about emergency treatment of avulsed over a period of 3 months. Data was tabulated in excel sheet and analyzed using SPSS 22.0 software. Discussion and Conclusion Patients themselves can play an important role in improving the prognosis of the avulsed tooth. Majority of the respondents (95 %) were unaware of possibility of re-implantation of avulsed tooth. Almost 88 % of female respondent disagreed to self re-implant the avulsed tooth. Majority of males and females said they would visit a dentist for emergency treatment. When asked about the cleaning media to be used to clean the dirty avulsed tooth, 36 % of the illiterate respondents preferred to use a toothbrush. About 18 % respondents chose ice water as storage medium to carry the avulsed tooth. Irrespective of education level, gender or awareness level of possibility of re-implantation of avulsed tooth, there is a general lack of awareness about the emergency management of avulsed tooth. Avulsion, Emergency treatment, Tooth re-implantation,