Screening for Hepatitis B Knowledge Among Dental Patients: How Much Do they Know?

Aim: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is still a global public health problem. Over 2 billion people have serological evidence of past or current HBV infection. Of these cases, 350-400 million, 5-7% of the world population, suffer from chronic infection. We sought to assess knowledge levels of dental patients about the nature of HBV infection, sources of infection, mode of transmission and vaccination. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study a questionnaire was prepared and given randomly to 300 dental patients. All the participants were personally interviewed and anonymity was assured. Results: Among these subjects, 67.7% had heard of HBV; 61% did not know that chronic HBV infection is usually asymptomatic; 80.3% of cases did not know that hepatitis B infection is preventable. Only 10% of patients knew that HBV can be transmitted by saliva; 52% of subjects did not have any information about hepatitis B vaccine in preventing liver disease and only 13.3% of patients had been vaccinated. More than half the patients (58.2%) believed that HBV could be transmitted by dentists and dental staffs in the dental clinics during surgeries. Conclusion: This study indicated low levels of knowledge about the nature of HBV infection, sources of infection, mode of transmission and vaccination. Thus, more work should be done with regard to educating patients.