Department of Oral Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Oral Medicine, and Periodontics, School of Dentistry, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
J Eval Clin Pract. 2019 Feb;25(1):142-147. doi: 10.1111/jep.13029. Epub 2018 Oct 2.
RATIONALE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVES: Inadequate awareness of oral health and related disciplines appears to be common among medical practitioners. This study was designed to evaluate the awareness of oral medicine (OM) specialty and its scope of practice among Jordanian medical practitioners and to outline potential strategies for improvement where appropriate.
A specially designed questionnaire was electronically distributed to Jordanian medical practitioners and thereafter via personal interviews to improve the response rate. The questionnaire comprised nine questions and covered demographical details and characteristics of participants, in addition to their awareness of OM and agreement to refer a group of common oral and dental conditions to OM specialists. Pearson Chi-square tests were used to examine the significance of association between the variables of respondents and awareness of OM. Significance level was set at P values < 0.05.
A total of 1492 respondents completed the questionnaire, of which 779 (52.2%) were aware of OM as an independent specialty. Age group, higher degrees in medicine, country of graduation, and the specialty type were significant determinants of OM awareness level. Oral ulceration and other mucosal pathology, including fungal infections, were the most likely conditions to be referred to OM specialists while participants had apparent problems separating the scope of practice of OM from other dental disciplines.
This study provides evidence on the profound interdisciplinary gap between medicine and dentistry and highlights the importance of more focused education and training in oral health-related disciplines to be provided to clinicians and medical trainees as described.
背景、目的和目标：医疗从业者对口腔健康和相关学科的认识不足似乎很常见。本研究旨在评估约旦医疗从业者对口腔医学（OM）专业的认识及其实践范围，并概述适当的改进策略。
专门设计的问卷通过电子方式分发给约旦的医疗从业者，然后通过个人访谈来提高回复率。问卷包括九个问题，涵盖了参与者的人口统计学细节和特征，以及他们对 OM 的认识和是否同意将一组常见的口腔和牙科疾病转介给 OM 专家。使用 Pearson Chi-square 检验来检查受访者的变量与对 OM 的认识之间的关联的显著性。显著性水平设定为 P 值<0.05。
共有 1492 名受访者完成了问卷，其中 779 名（52.2%）知道 OM 是一个独立的专业。年龄组、医学高学位、毕业国家和专业类型是 OM 意识水平的重要决定因素。口腔溃疡和其他黏膜病变，包括真菌感染，是最有可能转介给 OM 专家的疾病，而参与者在 OM 的实践范围与其他牙科学科之间明显存在问题。
本研究提供了医学和牙科之间存在深刻的跨学科差距的证据，并强调了向临床医生和医学受训者提供更集中的口腔健康相关学科教育和培训的重要性，正如所描述的那样。
