Evaluation of knowledge and attitudes of dentists in relation to causes, symptoms and treatment of xerostomia in Shiraz in 2014-2015

Xerostomia is the most common manifestation of salivary gland diseases, which is caused by a decrease in salivary flow rate or by a change in the biomechanical composition of saliva. Dentists should be able to diagnose this condition and administer appropriate treatments for their patients. This study aimed to evaluate knowledge and attitudes of dentists about xerostomia.
This cross-sectional analytical study evaluated the knowledge of 130 dentists by a questionnaire containing 22 questions in 4 sections, including the general aspects of salivary glands and causes, symptoms and treatment modalities of xerostomia. The relation between different aspects of questionnaire and dentist's age and job experience was evaluated with Kruskal-Wallis test. In addition, the dentist's knowledge about these aspects was evaluated with Mann-Whitney test (α = 0.05).
Of 130 participants in this study, 13 (%56.2) were male and 57 (%43.8) were female. The mean age of the participants was 39 ± 1.01 years. The mean of their job experience was 12 ± 0.93 years. The mean score on the causes of xerostomia was 4.2 (from a maximum of 7), the mean score on symptom was 2.05 (from a maximum of 4) and the mean score of knowledge on treatment was 4.05 (from a maximum of 7); the total score was 12 (from a maximum of 22). There was no significant correlation between knowledge about causes and symptoms and age and job experience. However, there was an inverse and significant correlation between knowledge on treatment and age (p value = 0.048). In addition, there was a significant correlation between knowledge about causes and gender (p value = 0.006). In this evaluation females provided better replies compared to males.
This study showed that the level of Shirazi dentist's knowledge was moderate and it is necessary to promote the knowledge of dentists in this respect.