Assessment of the Attitude and Knowledge of the Principles and Practices of Orthodontic Treatment Among the Non-orthodontic Specialists and General Practitioner Dentists

INTRODUCTION: General practitioner dentists and non-orthodontic specialties ought to have the knowledge of the basic principles and practices of orthodontics in order to educate the patients, diagnose their problems correctly and for proper referral. The objective of the present study is to assess the attitude and knowledge of the general practitioner dentists and non-orthodontic specialists towards the basic principles and practices of orthodontics. METHODS: This study was performed by presenting a closed questionnaire to a total of 78 participants out of which 46 were general practitioners and 32 were non-orthodontic specialists. A questionnaire consisting of a total of 21 questions was distributed and each question was allocated 0.5 marks for correct response whereas no deduction for wrong answer. RESULTS: In this present study, the total mean score of the evaluation of the questionnaire came out for general practitioner dentist and the non-orthodontic dental specialists was 13.92 and 16.69 respectively. The present study showed a statistically highly significant knowledge and attitude difference between Group A and Group B ( P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows a need for a increased clinically oriented education in the undergraduate courses and a multi-disciplinary inter department seminar presentations and forums set up for the post graduation courses for them to understand the scope of each other's specialties.