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ASSESSING ORAL HEALTH AND ROOT CANAL TREATMENT AWARENESS AMONG HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN SULAYMANIYAH CITY

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Submitted: 2025-12-24; Published: 2025-12-15
CC BY-NC 4.0 This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Oral health (OH) is a critical component of general health, with poor oral hygiene linked
to systemic illnesses. This study aimed to assess the OH knowledge and practices among health professionals in
Sulaymaniyah City. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 340 health professionals using stratified
sampling from public health facilities across Sulaymaniyah. Data were collected via a structured, multilingual, selfadministered questionnaire ready questionnaire from another paper just by English language foe evaluating knowledge,
attitudes, awareness, and barriers related to OH and root canal treatment (RCT). Results: 95.3% recognized brushing as
preventive for caries and periodontal disease, and 88.8% correctly defined RCT. However, significant disparities
emerged between dentists and physicians. Dentists showed superior knowledge regarding sugar’s role in caries (P ≤
0.011), plaque as a periodontal risk factor (P ≤ 0.003), and the technical definition of RCT (P ≤ 0.003). They also
exhibited more favorable attitudes toward twice-daily brushing (p < 0.001), RCT recommendation (P ≤ 0.002), and
perceived cost-effectiveness (P ≤ 0.018). Awareness of bacterial etiology of caries and RCT indications was significantly higher among dentists (P ≤ 0.001). Despite these gaps, 98.5% of all respondents acknowledged the oral-systemic health link.Conclusion: The findings of the present study revealed that although the overall awareness level of health professionals regarding OH and RCT was relatively high, there remained a statistically significant gap in knowledge between general practitioners and dentists. This difference was particularly pronounced in understanding technical aspects of RCT, the importance of post-treatment crowns, and factors influencing dental caries.

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