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Comprehensive Knowledge on Dental Management of HIV/AIDS: a Survey on Private Sector Oral Health Care Providers in Andhra Pradesh
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Background: In India capacity building and training in HIV/AIDS has been focused on doctors, nurses, and counsellors. Oral healthcare providers namely, dentists, dental assistants and nursing assistants have been marginalized. Dentists form the first source of healthcare contact to many HIV/ AIDS patients for complaints of oral lesions, with absolutely no knowledge of their patients HIV status. As there is a lack of data on oral health care providers and HIV /AIDS in India, ARUN took the initiative to address this issue and collect data that can prove invaluable in designing future programs and policies.
Methodology: The sampling technique used for the assessment is simple random sampling. The survey was carried out in dental colleges and private clinics and trust hospitals both in the rural and urban settings. A total of 75 dental health care providers from 5 dental colleges and 12 private clinics participated in the survey. The tool was a self administered questionnaire. MS Excel was used for recording the findings. Data analysis was done using SPSS software.
Results: None of the oral health care providers are referring the patients to HIV testing centres in government hospitals.67% are referring the patients for HIV testing to labs in private sector.32% of the dentists are referring patients for HIV testing based on the clinical manifestations, 23% as a routine, 8% based on risk behaviour, and 37% of dentists are not at all referring for HIV testing. Only 20% oral health care providers were aware of oral manifestations of HIV/AIDS, 56% of them are not sterilizing the instruments after each use, 61% of them are disinfecting the impressions before sending to the dental laboratory, only 61% dentists are following Universal safety precautions, 94% are not aware of PEP.
Conclusion: Approximately 10776 patients seeking oral health care in 20 private dental colleges and hospitals can be presented with potential HIV infection and approximately 2000 dentists need to be trained every year. Involving dentists would help in early detection and reducing the HIV epidemic.
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