Evaluation of Awareness and Practice in Dentists in Qazvin City Regarding the Legal Issues Related to the Dental Profession

Many of the legal problems that dentists face is rooted in a lack of knowledge about dental professional law. Sometimes it has led to legal cases. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge and practice of dentists of legal issues related to dentistry field.

By using a researcher-made 24-item questionnaire that was standardized with experts and obtaining information from the Qazvin Medical Council Organization, Iran, we refferd to all centers and dental offices in Qazvin and if it was not possible, we used an electronic questionnaire. Data of 181 dentists were recorded and the results were analyzed at a significance level of 0.05, analysis was done by SPSS version 24.

The mean age of dentists was 33±4 years and the mean work experience of dentists was 5.5±2. The average score of all dentists in the field of medical law was 10.5 out of twenty points and their average knowledge score was 11.5 and the performance score was 9.5 out of a maximum score of twenty. The degree of dentists had a significant relationship with the level of knowledge and practice (P=0.001). The age of the dentist was not related to the level of knowledge and practice (P=0.085). The gender of dentists was not significantly related to the mean scores (P=0.071). The general dentist's work experience had a significant relationship with the level of knowledge and dentists with a longer history scored higher. (P=0.044)

The level of knowledge of dentists about legal issues is lower than the average score, and it seems that due to the importance of this field, we need appropriate retraining courses and revising of related courses in the general dentistry course.