Knowledge, Opinions and Practice of Last Year Dentistry Students of Shahid Beheshti University Regarding Diagnosis and Differentiation of Malignant Lesions

The present study assessed the knowledge, opinions and practice of last year dentistry students of Shahid Beheshti university about diagnosis and differentiation of malignant jaw lesions during 2006-2007. This descriptive study was performed by the means of a self-administered questionnaire that was filled out by the last year dentistry students attending their last practical radiology subject. The questionnaire included two sections of knowledge and practice with opinion. The questionnaire was given as a final exam of this subject. The census sampling was taken and 34 students (61.8% females and 38.2% males) were participated. No consultation was possible and they had to answer the questions under the controlled conditions. The scores were analyzed by Mann-Whitney, Spearman ratio and Kendall tau-b ratios. The average of participants scores on knowledge indicated low level knowledge of students on radiographic features of the jaws. The students believed that border of lesions and its influence on adjacent structures had the most important role on definition of benign and malignant lesions. It has been shown that students knowledge about radiographic features of malignant lesions is low. However, more studies are needed in this field.