Get Permission Sharma and Rani: Awareness among undergraduates about State Dental Council and Medico - legal issues - Stratified cluster random sampling survey


Introduction

The Dentists Act, 1948 established the Dental Council of India to oversee dental education and the industry across the country.1 The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and regional state dental councils provide funding for it. Dentistry is no exception to the rule that law has an impact on all aspects of human activity. The main statutes pertaining to health, including the Drug and Cosmetics Act, the Dentists Act, etc., serve as a bridge between law and dentistry.2 Since the early professors of the profession were motivated by altruism, the ethical standards of the dentistry profession are steadily declining due to a market-driven system.

Despite the development of forensic odontology, which mandates that every dentist maintain some sort of record for every patient they treat, corporate dentistry today has degenerated into a typical commercial practice whose concerns are tightly dictated by profit and loss concerns.3 There is a very low percentage of dentists that preserve dental records, according to an assessment of dentists' awareness of the topic. The intellectual basis of health laws is still being applied and improved. This evaluation is predicated on the idea that patients and dental professionals lack information about medico-legal issues, which in turn prevents the development and delivery of dental services in an efficient manner.4

Table 1

Denotes multiple choice questionnaire and allocated points

Question number

Multiple choice questionnaire

Points allocated

1.

The Dentist Act was given in the year

a) 1948

b) 1958

c) 1954

d) don't know

01

2.

True among the features included in State Dental Council of India

a) Legitimate registration

b) Continued Dental Education (CDE) Programmes

c) Anti-ragging

d) Tobacco cessation centres in dental colleges

e) All of the above

f) Don't know

04

3.

CPA/COPRA stands for

a) Consumer professional act

b) Consumer protection act

c) Co-operative professional act

d) Combined professional act

e) Don't know

01

4.

Orld medical association provides services like

a) Health related human rights

b) Medical education -helping physicians to improve skills

c) Patient safety and public health polices

d) Democracy among medical associations

e) Don't know

f) All of the above

05

5.

Indemnity insurance is helpful in

a) Medical malpractice allegations

b) Breach of confidentiality allegations

c) Loss of third-party documents

d) All of the above

e) Don't know

04

6.

Malpractice in Dentistry involves

a) Delayed treatment of disease

b) Misdiagnosis

c) Intentional misconduct by Dental professional

d) All of the above

e) Don't know

01

7.

Medical jurisprudence related to

a) Only Forensic Medicine legal issues

b) Both Dental and Medical legal issues

c) Only Dental legal issues

d) Only Medical legal issues

e) Don't know

01

8.

When it is not considered as negligence

a) Inability to obtain consent form in an emergency

b) Doctor that didn't maintain a standard care

c) Injury due to lack of care

d) When patient is mentally conscious but mis-proxy consent is taken

e) Don't know

01

9.

True about CPA/COPRA

a) State commission-compensation up to Rs.20/-lakhs

b) District forum-compensation above Rs.25/-lakhs but less than Rs.1/-crore

c) National commission-compensation above Rs.1/-crore

d) All the above

e) Don't know f) Other

01

10.

State Dental Council of India register for

a) M.D.S & B.D.S

b) Dental hygienists

c) Dental mechanics/technicians

d) All of the above

e) Don't know

01

11.

The dentist act was given by

a) Indian Council of Medical Research

b) Indian Dental Association

c) Dental Council of India

d) Don't know

01

12.

Consent is invalid when

a) Given under 12years of age

b) Given under 15years of age

c) Given under 18 years of age

d) Don't know e) Other

01

13.

Most over-prescribed drug in dentistry

a) Amoxicillin

b) Cephalosporins

c) Tetracyclines

d) Sulphonamides

e) Don't know f) Other

01

14.

One of the following is not the principle of ethics

a) Truthfulness

b) Punctuality

c) Confidentiality

d) Beneficence

e) Autonomy

f) Don't know

01

15.

Every Dental Surgeon should maintain his/her patient records for a minimum of

a) 3 years

b) 5 years

c) 2 years

d) Don't know

01

Materials and Methods

Study design

The current observational study was an online-based questionnaire which was available online for one week between 23/11/2022 and 30/11/2022 which is based on Bikash Ranjan et al., 2015.5 The Google platform was used to construct the questionnaire and the valid link was distributed through social media (Table 1). All participants completed the questionnaire anonymously.

Study population

A total of 625 students of random dental colleges from Andhra Pradesh state had responded. The included criterion was students who are pursuing internship and final year are selected to complete the questionnaire. Remaining undergraduates are not included in this survey.

Components and scoring of questionnaires

Questions for the current survey were adapted and modified from previously validated and predicted questionnaires. A total of 25 points questionnaire was prepared and based on the number of points attained by the students, they are categorized based on level of awareness as mentioned in Table 2.

Table 2

Components and scoring of questionnaires

S. No:

Response

Range

1.

Low

0-12

2.

Medium

13-19

3.

High

20-25

Stratified cluster random sampling survey was done to study the data and refine it with possible variables.6, 7 These included level of awareness (low, medium and high), year of study (final year, internship) and gender variation (male, female).

Results

This online questionnaire was made with the help of Google forms and shared to via whatsapp groups to various dental colleges in Andhra Pradesh state to only final years and intern’s students. The total number of respondents for this questionnaire was 625. Based on the overall survey points, the level of awareness among these individuals were categorized as follows:

  1. Low (35%)

  2. Medium (40%)

  3. High (25%)

Figure 1

Categorization of level of awareness

https://typeset-prod-media-server.s3.amazonaws.com/article_uploads/a59602d5-3345-4322-bcd6-b8725ce466d0/image/530fb198-fb2e-4a18-93b2-f2f40d9d2616-uimage.png

Level of awareness based on year of study

The specific number of respondents from specific year of study are as follows:

Final year students – 275

  1. Low - 30%

  2. Medium - 55%

  3. High - 15%

Internship students - 350

  1. Low - 40%

  2. Medium - 35%

  3. High - 25%

Figure 2

Level of awareness based on year of study

https://typeset-prod-media-server.s3.amazonaws.com/article_uploads/a59602d5-3345-4322-bcd6-b8725ce466d0/image/e7ed4108-265f-467f-9d0b-465803368fa1-uimage.png

Level of awareness based on gender

Out of all the respondents, male respondents are 175 and female respondents are 450; thereby their level of awareness was as mentioned in Table 3.

Table 3

Level of awareness based on gender

Gender

Low

Medium

High

N

%

N

%

N

Male (175)

61

35%

35

20%

79

45%

Female (450)

90

20%

203

45%

157

35%

Total (625)

151

24%

238

38%

236

38%

Results of individual questionnaire

Comparing the level of awareness among final year students and intern’s, the individual questionnaire scores were mentioned in Table 4.

Table 4

Level of awareness for individual questionnaire

S. No:

Question

Final year’s (275)

Intern’s (350)

1.

The Dentist Act was given in the year

21

26

2.

True among the features included in State Dental Council of India

18

24

3.

CPA/COPRA stands for

16

23

4.

Orld medical association provides services like

17

22

5.

Indemnity insurance is helpful in

19

24

6.

Malpractice in Dentistry involves

17

24

7.

Medical jurisprudence related to

18

22

8.

When it is not considered as negligence

21

23

9.

True about CPA/COPRA

17

21

10.

State Dental Council of India register for

19

23

11.

The dentist act was given by

20

22

12.

Consent is invalid when

18

24

13.

Most over-prescribed drug in dentistry

20

25

14.

One of the following is not the principle of ethics

17

23

15.

Every Dental Surgeon should maintain his/her patient records for a minimum of

17

24

[i] *L- Low, *M- Medium, *H- High

Discussion

This online survey indicated a medium level of awareness among the undergraduates regarding State Dental Council and Medico-Legal issues.8 The range of variables such as number of respondents, level of awareness, year of study and gender variation influenced the outcomes of this study. Selection of final years and internship students from undergraduates was based on their clinical involvement and knowledge about public health dentistry.

There were certain limitations to this survey: majorly, the difficulty in distributing the questionnaire to other colleges among the state and finding similar previous studies. As an alternative, studies in specific year of study (final years, interns) with basic knowledge on public health dentistry with clinical exposure were selected for comparisons.9, 10 Nevertheless, this work revealed strong points that were represented by a large sample size with no missing data.

Since the knowledge on State Dental Council and Medico-legal issues, its functional & structural features and the way of prevention, which has abundance importance for any dental professional to overcome legal situations in their clinical practice and to self protect themselves from ill-legal defamation and false allegations on them.11, 12, 13 Also, the basic principles of Ethics are to be known to every outgoing doctors be it medical or dental, professional ethics are to be followed every now and then to maintain the harmony and welfare of the doctors.14, 15

Although a high number of responses was received for this online questionnaire, participation from other years of study (1st, 2nd, 3rd) was limited and responses from final years and internship students are only appreciated. Therefore, caution should be exercised before the generalization and interpretation of the results.

Conclusion

The responses of the participants generally indicated their medium level of knowledge to the questions asked in the questionnaire.

  1. According to the answers, internship students are observed to have slightly more knowledge compared to final year undergraduates.

  2. It is observed that females had more than the males which might be due to less population of males compared to females among the students.

Source of Funding

None.

Conflict of Interest

None.

Acknowledgements

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

References

1 

R Kesavan AV Mary M Priyanka B Reashmi Knowledge of dental ethics and jurisprudence among dental practitioners in Chennai, India: A cross-sectional questionnaire studyJ Orofac Sci20168212834

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H Gongura BS Krishna A Vadlamudi M Marripudi SP Dev A Vivek Knowledge and Awareness on Medico-Legal Aspects in Dentistry amongst Dental Graduates-An Original ResearchSaudi J Oral Dent Res20205628790

3 

S Prasad I Menon C Dhingra R Anand Awareness of Consumer Protection Act among dental health professionals in dental schools of Ghaziabad, IndiaOral Health Dent Manag20131242628

4 

R Shenoy R Kavya A Harshvardhan Be aware or beware. Awareness of COPRAIndian Assoc Public Health Dent200913259

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BR Meher N Joshua B Asha D Mukherji A questionnaire based study to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacovigilance among undergraduate medical students in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of South IndiaPerspect Clin Res20156421721

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P Bhardwaj Types of sampling in researchJ Pract Cardiovascular Sci20195315763

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T Beauchamp J Childress Principles of biomedical ethics6th edOxford University PressOxford2008

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JW Dunn RW Shaw Medical ethics: a survey of general practitioners' attitudesJ R Coll Gen Pract1983332577634

10 

AM Mohamed MA Ghanem A Kassem Knowledge, perceptions and practices towards medical ethics among physician residents of University of Alexandria Hospitals, EgyptEast Mediterr Health J201218993545

11 

CO Dummett Ethics and bioethics in dentistryJ Calif Dent Association19942210303

12 

K Mrityunjay K Prashant Medical negligence: criminal liability of the doctor and establishmentCri L J2003113955

13 

P Milgrom L Fiset C Whitney D Conrad T Cul-Len D O'Hara D Malpractice claims during 1988-1992: a national survey of dentistsJ Am Dent Assoc199412544629

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MJ Denham A Foster DA Tyrrell Work of a district ethical committeeBr Med J19792619710425

15 

W Nasiłowski Patient's consent to treatment with reference to the development of medical ethicsWiad Lek2007603-4198200



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Article History

Received : 21-05-2024

Accepted : 07-06-2024


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https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijohd.2024.021


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