Methods: Study was questionnaire based using a pre-tested 23 item questions. The study sample were two hundred health care providers such as medical doctors, dentists, nurses, community health workers (CHEWS) and traditional birth attendants (TBA) that are registered with the relevant professional boards.
Results: Two hundred out of two hundred and forty people responded to the questionnaire. 77.51% of these participants had seen patients with dental problems. All the dentists, CHEWs & TBAs, 58% of the medical doctors and 61.5% of the nurses that had seen patients with dental problems had referred patients for S & P.
Conclusions: This study showed a low level of referral pattern for S & P by health care providers except the dentists. This may indicate their low level of awareness for this procedure and it is desirable for basic relevant topics in dentistry to be introduced into the academic curriculum of these groups of people.