Dental Students: Attitude, Knowledge, and Treatment Expereience of Cleft Lip/Palate

The objective of this study is to ascertain attitude, knowledge of pathology and treatment experience of dental undergraduates about cleft lip and palate deformities, which may act as an indicator of the effectiveness of teaching technique.

METHODS:

All the final year dental students of University of Benin, Benin city, Nigeria were included in the study. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used. Data analysed using SPSS version 11.

RESULTS:

93% responded to questionnaire 71% male, 29% female, 97.8% of the students were unmarried. All students believed that CLAP patients require more attention than the other children and should not be abandoned. 62.2% believed that mothers of cleft babies do suffer severe social, psychological problems like stigmatization, rejection by in-laws, severe financial burden and depression, which is in consonance with other findings.

62.2% of students did not hear about CLAP before entering the University. 37.8% believed that drugs were responsible, while 11% believed it was genetic. On the particular drugs about 33% felt it was thalidomide. Only 40% had a good knowledge of the pathology while 28% had poor knowledge. 95% were aware of medical and dental complications. 80% knew about presurgical orthopaedics, while 53.3% knew about the benefits. Of those who heard about presurgical orthopaedics, 12% did not know the benefits, 25% had wrong notion. 38.6% had participated in presurgical orthopaedics.

15.6% had no knowledge of the timing of surgical repairs, 5.5% had no idea about the surgical technique. 42.4% participated in surgical repair of patients and 86.7% would like to be part of CLAP team.

CONCLUSION:

The students tend to have the right attitude to CLAP Patients but their overall knowledge of the pathology and surgical treatment technique is inadequate which may be a reflection of teaching technique.