A survey of dental students on global oral health issues in Nigeria

OBJECTIVES: This study seeks to investigate to what extent are students conversant with global oral health initiatives and policies, students’ willingness to volunteer service at international setting or developing countries and the need for global oral health course in Nigeria. METHODS: Final year dental students in two Nigerian Universities were surveyed for this study. The students voluntarily completed the global oral health information questionnaire in a classroom before a scheduled lecture. The collected data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistic 20. RESULTS: All the final year students participated in the survey. All the students agreed that they need to be taught course on global oral health and would consider volunteering their dental skills and expertise in an international setting or developing country. Only 4.5% of the students knew the meaning of the basic package of oral care (BPOC) and none of the surveyed students could correctly name the three components of BPOC. Whereas only 18.2% could identify World Dental Federation and World Health Organization as the bodies that developed global oral health goals for the year 2000, none of the students could correctly list the three components of global oral health goals for the year 2000. CONCLUSION: This study concludes that a gap exists in the knowledge of students on global oral health matters and recommends that the curricula of schools be constantly reviewed in line with current trends in policies and practices.