Knowledge, attitude, and behavior of restorative, orthodontic, and pediatric departments' members toward bisphenol A dental exposures

• Published in: Journal of International Society of Preventive and Community Dentistry 2019-01, Vol.9 (1), p.83-88
• Main Authors: Bagher, Sara, Sabbagh, Heba, Aldajani, Mariam, Al-Ghamdi, Nouf, Zaatari, Ghufran
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitudes; Bisphenol A; Composite materials; Data processing; Dentistry; Departments; Knowledge; Original; Orthodontics; Patients; Pediatrics; Questionnaires; Resins; Response rates; Sealing compounds; Studies; Validity
• ISSN: 2231-0762; 2250-1002
• DOI: 10.4103/jispcd.JISPCD_338_18

Aim and Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of Restorative, Orthodontic, and Pediatric Dentistry Departments' members at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, toward bisphenol A (BPA) dental exposure. Materials and Methods: A survey was pretested for face and content validity. It included ten knowledge-, four attitude-, and five behavior-based items. The collected data were analyzed using Windows SPSS software version 22 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Significant levels were set at 0.05. Results: A total of 109 members participated in this study. Most of them (80 [73.4]) had never attended a lecture or read an article on BPA dental exposure previously. The restorative department members showed the highest (mean ± standard deviation score) in knowledge-based questions (3.32 ± 3.323), and those who reported that they had heard of BPA previously, read an article, or attended a lecture on BPA received significantly higher mean knowledge scores (P < 0.0001). The pediatric dentistry departments' members showed significantly higher agreements to attitude questions. Only ten participants (9.2%) followed the recommended guidelines to reduce patients' exposure to BPA during the application of BPA-containing dental materials. Conclusions: Reading an article or attending a lecture on BPA significantly improves the knowledge scores. Therefore, there is a need to increase the awareness on BPA dental exposure among different departments' members in KAU to ensure that BPA exposure to patients is minimized and to ensure the spread of this knowledge to the dental students.