KNOWLEDGE , ATTITUDE AND PERCEPTION OF POST GRADUATE DENTAL STUDENTS AND FACULTY TOWARDS PURSUING PUBLIC HEALTH DENTISTRY

Background :Knowledge of dental students' expectations of their profession as well as their attitudes to study a particular specialty of dentistry is of great importance. These attitudes and expectations make studying dentistry meaningful to dental students and society and understanding these factors facilitate workforce planning in the dental sector. Thus, this study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude and perception of post graduate dental students and faculty towards pursuing public health dentistry. Materials and Methods: The required data- i.e, the responses given by various participants were collected and entered in a methodical manner in an excel sheet for the tabulation of data and further statistical analysis using SPSS software by IBM. Results :The participants found most interest in their undergraduate level were as follows; 12.0% of the respondents in public health dentistry and the remaining showed interest in speciality. The reasons behind the participants taking up public health dentistry were by chance for about 80.0%. Among the participants, 86.67% of the respondents were interested in community service. About 64.0% of the respondents found the subject of public health dentistry good, about 26.0% found it very interesting and the remaining 10.0% found it boring. About 97.33% of the respondents agreed that public health dentistry can be taken up as a career option to help people and the remaining disagreed. Conclusion : The study concluded that dental students had a considerable amount of interest in pursuing post graduation in this speciality. Efforts should be intensified, both by dental council and by the dental colleges, to develop this speciality, keeping in mind the increasing attitude of dental undergraduates towards it.