Oral Cancer Awareness in Turkish Dental Patients

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to provide data from dental patients about their oral health attitudes, dental visits, oral cancer predisposing factors and general knowledge about early signs of oral cancer.
METHODS: This study was conducted on dental examination patients, involving both genders with an age range of 12–77 years. All questions were asked through a written questionnaire.
RESULTS: This study included 254 cases with a mean age of 31.8±16.4 years. One hundred and fifty three (60.2%) of the study group consisted of females and 101 (39.8%) were males. Smoking and alcohol consumption were frequent among the working group and males (p=0.001). Regarding general knowledge about early cancer signs, there was no significance among genders. Considering attitudes of the last dental visits of individuals according to their occupation, the working group displayed significance (p=0.005). The total rate for information about oral cancer, causes and symptoms 20 (7.9%) individuals had positive knowledge. Only 5 (0.02%) of the participants would refer to a dentist for neck swelling.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: General knowledge of signs and symptoms of oral cancer are low in Turkish dental patients, most declare that early diagnosis is important. The main predisposing factors of oral cancer (smoking and alcohol) are statistically more consumed by the working group but showed no gender predisposition.