Abstract
Introduction: For the long term survival of patient timely identification and quick treatment is crucial and dentists play a vital role in this. So the aim of the study was to assess dentists' knowledge and practice towards the early detection of oral cancer and to compare the levels of knowledge and practice on the basis of qualification and years of working experience. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among the dental professionals in Riyadh using an online survey. Online questionnaire consisted of questions related to professional and demographic data followed by questions concerning oral cancer detection methods, practice and experience. Results: A total of 336 dental professionals responded to the survey sent online (63% females and 37% males). Out of these, 41.7% of the participants reported that they had encountered pre-malignant lesions in their clinical practice, 79.2% felt the need of additional training on how to perform exfoliative cytology and 22.9% of the dentists were aware of recent advances for early detection for oral cancer. Conclusion: There is a need of injecting fresh knowledge and insight about the recently used diagnostic techniques among dental professionals of Riyadh in order to improve the prognosis and chances of detection and treatment of suspected patients.