Evaluation of Yazd dental students’ awareness and practice regarding diagnosis and treatment of endo-perio lesions in 2020

Abstract Background and Aims: Lack of dentists' information about the possibility of treatment of endo-perio lesions is one of the main reasons for dental removing. Considering the importance of this issue, the present study aimed to investigate the knowledge and practice of senior dental students in Yazd about differentiation of endo-perio lesions and effective treatment of these lesions. Material and Methods: The present study was descriptive-cross-sectional. The instrument used in this study was a researcher-made and three-part questionnaire including: demographic information of students (age and sex), 14 questions that assessed student's knowledge about differential diagnosis of endo-perio lesions and 4 performance questions in this regard. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 17, T-test, ANOVA statistical test and Pearson correlation coefficient. The significance level in this study was 0.05. Results: In this study, out of 52 students that participated, 23 (44.23%) were male and 29 (55.76%) females. The mean age of the samples was 25.19±2.09 with the age range of 23-36 years. On average, participants had 60.2% knowledge. There was a significant relationship between students' knowledge and age (P-value=0.028). There was no significant relationship between students' knowledge and sex (P-value=0.734), total GPA (P-value=0.237) and also between their performance and age (P-value=0.949), sex (P-value=0.061) and total GPA (P-value=0.284). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, the knowledge and practice of studied dental students regard diagnosis and treatment of endo-perio lesions was moderate. It is recommended that educational interventions and appropriate strategies be adopted to promote students' knowledge and practice.