study of the public attitude towards the necessity of dental radiography in a selected population in Shiraz-1391

In the recent years, dental radiographies play an important role in diagnosis and accurately following the treatment processes. Lack of general and proper attitudes in this regard causes serious concerns for the patients, which should be properly pursued and resolved. The present study aimed to determine the public attitude towards the necessity of performing dental radiographies for different dental treatments.
The present descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 420 residents of Shiraz in 2012. The study data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire including 20 items on the general attitude towards the necessity of performing dental radiographies. Then, the data were entered into the SPSS statistical software (v. 17) and analyzed using Mann- Whitney U test, Kruskal- Wallis H test, and Spearman's correlation coefficient.
In this study, the subjects’ score of attitude toward the necessity of dental radiographies was between -8 and 15. The results showed that more than half of the participants believed that dental radiographs could not be taken for pregnant women (59.3%). Besides, more than half of the subjects did not know the answer to the questions “Is the radiation received by taking 10 dental radiographies with wearing lead aprons and collars more than the cosmic rays, such as ultraviolet radiation, that the individuals are naturally exposed to every day”. The study results revealed a significant relationship between the subjects’ attitude toward the necessity of radiographies and their level of education. In fact, the significant difference in this regard was observed between the subjects with under diploma degrees and those with diplomas as well as the participants with A.D. and those with B.Sc. degrees (P=0.006).
According to results of the present study, the subjects did not have sufficient information about the necessity of performing dental radiography for different dental treatments. This may cause some problems for performing these procedures in the society. Therefore, public training using mass media seems to be of great importance.