ASSESSMENT OF LEVEL OF EXPECTATION, AWARENESS AND ACCEPTANCE OF DENTAL IMPLANT AS TREATMENT OF CHOICE IN ADULT PATIENTS SEEKING PROSTHETIC REHABILITATION

Introduction: Dental implants (DI) are being widely used for replacing missing teeth and literature reports showed successful results of DI supported prostheses in partial and complete edentulous rehabilitations. However, knowledge and awareness pertaining to these treatment modalities among patients with and without missing teeth need to be evaluated. Objective: This Cross-sectional observational research aimed to assess and compare the knowledge and awareness on pros thetic rehabilitation with dental implants among dentate and partially / completely edentulous adults. Materials and Methods: This questionnaire based study was conducted on patients seeking treatment for their missing dentate partial/complete, a series of questions were asked to assess the mindset of patient regarding the dental implant and its awareness among adult patients. Result: Descriptive statistics were presented in the form of Frequency and Percentages. Chi square statistics were applied to calculate the statistics of the different variables between the different groups. The statistical constant was fixed at p<0.05. The distribution of the study sample was not normally distributed. Graphically the results were represented as bar graphs Conclusion: Within the limitations of the study, there is a need to disseminate better knowledge, raise awareness on DI and eliminate the associated misconceptions, thereby facilitating the general population to take maximum advantage of these novel biomaterials to serve the dual purpose of aesthetics and function.