Knowledge of Non-dental Students in Kermanshah about Dental Specialties (2012-2013)

Knowledge of dental specialties leads to referral and proper therapy. The present study was intended to determine the knowledge of non-dental students about dental specialties. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 703 students form among all students of Kermanshah were selected based on their responses to 9 questions and the results were classified into 3 groups of poor, average and good. Data were analyzed by SPSS (version 18) using chi-square test. In terms of knowledge, 38 (5.4%), 261 (37.1%) and 404 (57.5%) were classified into poor, average and good groups, respectively. The knowledge of female non-dental students was significantly higher than that of the male counterpart (P_value < 0.05). No significant difference was reported between non-dental and dental students (P= 0.21). It seems that the students investigated in this study have acceptable knowledge about dental specialties. It is necessary to make more attempts to make different dental specialties known to the public and in the society.