Knowledge On Pulpal Defects Among The Ug Dental Students - A Cross Sectional Survey

Abstract

Background: The pulp is a mass of connective tissue that resides within the center of the tooth, directly beneath the layer of dentin. It is referred to as part of the “dentin-pulp” complex, and also known as the endodontium, these two tissues are closely interrelated and dependent on each other's development and survival. Pulpal defects include pulp stones and pulp death which eventually deteriorates the oral health.

Aim: To evaluate the knowledge of pulpal defects of teeth among undergraduates.

Materials and methods: This is a questionnaire based cross-sectional study performed among 100 dental UG students in a private dental college. Random sampling is used to minimise the sampling bias.A questionnaire of 10 questions about Pulpal defects were circulated through the online service Mode among undergraduates. The data was collected and analysed using SPSS software version 23. Chi square test was used to analyze and comparative bar graphs were plotted and it is statistically significant only if the p value is less than 0.05. Pearson chi square test P value is  0.016 which is statistically significant.

Result: There were 100 responses collected from dental UG students for this survey. From the responses collected,it is shown that the second year students (48%) were more knowledgeable about Pulpal defects than first year(23%) and third year (29%).The association between year of study and number of respondents who were aware of Pulpal defects is evaluated by Pearson chi square test P value is  0.016 which is statistically significant.

Conclusion: It was concluded that second year students have more knowledge about pulpal defects when compared to first and third year. This research had helped the students in filling the knowledge about pulpal defects .