A Cross-Sectional Study on the Knowledge of Hepatitis B Infection among Dental Professionals

Background : Hepatitis B is an inflammatory disease of liver due to double stranded DNA virus of the hepadnaviridae, transmitted through contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person. Hepatitis B poses a major health concern and is the world’s most common blood borne viral infection placing healthcare workers, medical and dental professionals at higher occupational risk and in India it is the second most common cause for acute hepatitis. To increase the awareness and knowledge about viral hepatitis WHO has declared 28 th July as the World Hepatitis Day/Eradication day. So the present survey was conducted to evaluate and compare the status of awareness of hepatitis B infection among dental practitioners and students. Methodology : A questionnaire based study was conducted on a randomized sample of 280 dental professionals including dental practitioners, dental postgraduate students and dental interns. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results & Conclusion: The results obtained reveal that 58.21% dental professionals were ignorant about the investigation procedures & diagnosis of hepatitis. While 82.15%, 95.36%, 58.22% and 93. 93% had good knowledge about hepatitis infection and its transmission, vaccine, attitude towards HBV patients and post exposure prophylaxis respectively. However, the status of awareness among dental practitioners, postgraduate students and interns was found to be insignificant (p >0.05).