Barriers Limiting Dental Students to Perform Head and Neck Examinations

Objectives: To explore the factors related to an increase or decrease in the performance of head and neck/oral cancer examinations on every patient seen by dental students in their final year at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) in Tijuana, Mexico and Universidad de Antioquia (UdeA) in Medellin, Colombia.
Methods: 187 Dental students (131 from UABC & 56 from UdeA) who were in their final year (D4) were recruited to complete a 147-question survey assessment tool, their perception on the factors related to increase or decrease in performance of head and neck examinations on every patient were examined, results and research objectives were assessed.
Results: In factors related to decreasing performance of head and neck examination (intra and extra orally) on every patient, dental student’s consider “lack of guides or professional standards on how to perform a head and neck/Oral cancer examination” (55%) the main factor on why there is a lesser chance that they will not perform the examination, followed by “patients do not think oropharyngeal cancer is important” (44%) and as key factors that would increase the chance to perform these examinations, dental students considered “more education about oropharyngeal cancer associated to HPV” their main request (74%), along with “more evidence-based training on how to perform a head and neck examination correctly” (65%).
Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that dental students should be better trained to perform clinical examinations of the head and neck and carry out patient education regarding the importance of oropharyngeal cancer prevention, so that future oral health professionals are more willing to perform head and neck examinations on each of their patients.