Abstract
Background
Facial cosmetic and oral maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) is primarily a surgical specialty of dentistry concerned with the management of diseases of the jaws, mouth, face and neck regions. It is indeed common knowledge that many medical professionals and the public have a very low awareness of OMFS.
Aims
This multicentric study aimed to investigate and check the familiarity and awareness of facial cosmetic and OMFS among dental and medical undergraduate students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Methods
This cross-sectional study was distributed among medical and dental undergraduate students of different universities in Saudi Arabia, between September and December, 2019. The questionnaire consisted of 23 variables that were divided into 2 sections: (a) demographic information (b) facial cosmetic and OMFS questions. Ethical approval was granted by the Research Ethics Committee. All analyses were performed using SPSS, version 24.
Results
Total of 412 dentistry students and 452 medicine & surgery students included. A much higher percentage of dental students (80.6 per cent) have heard about Facial cosmetic and, p<0.001. Among the specific Facial Cosmetic & OMFS, 'fractures of the jaw and face' was known by most of the dental (77.7 per cent) and medical (63.7 per cent) students. The mean awareness score was higher among the dentistry students compared to medicine & surgery students (8.88 +/- 4.47 vs. 8.78 +/- 4.40 out of 17.
Conclusion
Level of Familiarity and awareness was reasonable. This study ascertains the need for an effective educational program to increase the awareness.