Materials and Method: The study population comprised consenting senior secondary school students in Ayete and Igbo-Ora chosen by convenience sampling. The sample size was 393. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires. Variables included level of knowledge and perception towards dentistry and medicine.
Results: Majority of the respondents (62.8%) were between the ages 15-19. About 34% have considered dentistry and 48% have considered medicine as potential careers. 80% of the respondents had a poor level of awareness of who a medical doctor or a dentist is. There was an association between perceived salary and choice of career (p<0.05). Of the students that felt dentists are doctors, 36.4% wanted to be dentists while of those that did not feel dentists are doctors, 31.8% wanted to be dentists. A career talk on dentistry had a positive effect on 33.5% of the students and no effect on 54.4%. A career talk on medicine had a positive effect on 48.2% and no effect on 42.9%.
Conclusion: The level of awareness of the job descriptions of dentists and doctors is poor however money was a motivating factor for choice of profession. Career talk had a negative effect on choice of dentistry and a positive effect on medicine as professions. There is a need for adequate and effective career talk on dentistry for school students.
Keywords: Knowledge, perception , attitude, High school, students, dentistry, medicine, profession, career.