Sa'adu Z O, Abdulraheem I S
Dental Health Centre, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
Niger J Med. 2003 Oct-Dec;12(4):211-6.
In most developing countries, physicians attend to patients with oral health problems more than dentists usually because physicians are easily available. The aim of this study is to assess the level of practice of oral health care by physicians and make recommendations on how oral health care practice can be improved among the physicians.
This is a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out among 173 physicians who were randomly selected using their various health facilities. The study was carried out in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, Nigeria, over a period of six months. A well-structured questionnaire served as data collection tool while EPI-INFO version 6 software packages were used for analyzing data after being coded.
There was a high level (74.1%) of practice of oral health care among the physicians and the major reasons for this were limited number of qualified dentists in the study area as well as lack of awareness by the patients concerning the treatment of oral health problems by dentists. Toothache and trauma were the most (68.2%) and least (2.3%) prevalent oral health problems respectively seen by physicians in this study. Antibiotics and analgesics were the medications used by the majority (58.1%) of the physicians to treat oral health problems. Almost all (97.7%) the respondents referred oral health problems to dentists while only 2.3% claimed never referred patients to a dentist.
The available dental services in the study area cannot meet the oral health needs of the populace considering the fact that there are fewer dentists than physicians. Since this study showed a high level of practice of oral health care among the physicians, it is therefore necessary to include dentistry in the curricular of all medical schools in Nigeria and such curricula need to place more emphasis on promotive and preventive aspects of oral health as well as community participation.
在大多数发展中国家，通常内科医生比牙医更多地诊治口腔健康问题患者，因为内科医生更容易找到。本研究的目的是评估内科医生的口腔保健实践水平，并就如何提高内科医生的口腔保健实践提出建议。
这是一项描述性横断面研究，在173名通过其各自卫生机构随机选取的内科医生中进行。该研究在尼日利亚夸拉州首府伊洛林进行，为期六个月。一份结构完善的问卷用作数据收集工具，数据编码后使用EPI-INFO 6版软件包进行分析。
内科医生中口腔保健实践水平较高（74.1%），主要原因是研究区域内合格牙医数量有限以及患者对牙医治疗口腔健康问题缺乏认识。在本研究中，内科医生所见最常见（68.2%）和最不常见（2.3%）的口腔健康问题分别是牙痛和外伤。大多数（58.1%）内科医生使用抗生素和镇痛药治疗口腔健康问题。几乎所有（97.7%）受访者会将口腔健康问题转诊给牙医，而只有2.3%的人声称从未将患者转诊给牙医。
考虑到牙医数量少于内科医生，研究区域现有的牙科服务无法满足民众的口腔健康需求。由于本研究显示内科医生的口腔保健实践水平较高，因此有必要将牙科纳入尼日利亚所有医学院校的课程，并且此类课程需要更加强调口腔健康的促进和预防方面以及社区参与。
