Evaluation of knowledge, attitude and practice of general dental practitioners regarding HIV positive patients in Qazvin

the epidemic of AIDS increasing and yet no definitive treatment has been found. Although patients with this disease are in need of routine dental care, previous studies have shown that many dentists refuse to accept them. So the objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of general dental practitioners regarding HIV positive patients in Qazvin. fifty-one general dental practitioners working in Qazvin were selected for this descriptive-analytic study. In order to evaluate their practice, the examiner disguised herself as an HIV+ patient and made an appointment at the dental clinics of the dentists chosen for the investigation. For the assessment of asked to fill out questionnaires covering HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software. the average knowledge of 30(71%) of the dentists was approximately 15.1. despite the fact that only 13(32%) of the responders expressed their reluctance to treat HIV+ patients, 36(70%) of them were not willing to accept these patients. A statistically significant relationship was not seen between knowledge, attitude and practice of the studied dentists, regarding HIV+ patients.