Methods: The data were collected by a self-administered validated questionnaire distributed among dentists participating in the 52nd International Congress of Iranian Dental Association and a random sample of dentists working in Tehran. It included 7 questions about knowledge, 8 questions on backgrounds, 10 questions on general usage of IT, and 3 questions on the professional usage of IT. The data were entered into SPSS version 18 and the statistical analyses were performed by ANOVA, NPAR test, and regression modeling.
Results: From the total of 303 general practitioners, 30.4% were male and 11 dentists (3.6%) indicated that they had no access to a personal computer. Some of the most popular sites used by dentists were Google (94.3%) and social network of Facebook (69.8%). Those with higher scores in general usage of IT had more consulted with their patients through the Internet. The practice of professional IT was more in men and among those with higher general usage of IT.
Conclusions: This study was a preliminary evaluation of the topic among oral health professions indicating IT to be almost available to most but not all dentists in Iran. Dentists participating in the study had insufficient knowledge and their professional IT usage is defective and weak, needing more consideration and training.