Dentists' knowledge and behavior toward managing hypertensive patients.

OBJECTIVES

Dental office is an ideal screening place to identify undiagnosed/uncontrolled patients with hypertension. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and behavior of dentists toward performing proper management of hypertensive patients in Saudi Arabia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A close-ended e-questionnaire was created and sent to dentists of all levels (n = 710) in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire included questions that assessed attitudes and behavior toward using a sphygmomanometer in dental clinics and assessed dentists' knowledge and behavior toward proper management of patients with hypertension.

RESULTS

About 62.4% of dentists had a sphygmomanometer in their clinic. Around 79.5% believe that working on patients with high blood pressure (BP) is associated with a risk of complications. However, only 13.3% of them measure the BP of all patients prior to treatment, and 63.3% would do so only if the patient noted a problem. About 54.3% of the respondents prefer using local anesthetics without epinephrine, and they would prefer to refer those patients to dental consultants for treatment. If a patient's BP was 180/100 mmHg, 78.1% of dentists would urgently refer that patient to his or her physician and would not perform a routine elective dental treatment.

CONCLUSION

There is a lack of knowledge and behavior toward proper management of patients with hypertension in our dental sociality. Broadening the breath of dentists' responsibilities to include screening and working together with physicians will help improve the community dental and general health of visiting patients and should be the goal of all dentists.