Knowledge, Attitudes and Perception toward Radiation Hazards and Protection among Dental Professionals in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Introduction: Radiation hazards are harmful, and it becomes precarious when there is a professional negligence or ignorance. Objectives: To evaluate the knowledge, attitude and perception among dental students and dental practitioners toward dental radiation and to assess the difference in knowledge between dentists, dental staff and dental students. Materials and methods: The study was comprised of 550 participants. The information was collected from each participant through structured questionnaire consisting of 39 close-ended questions. Statistical analysis: Chi-square to test the association of knowledge, attitudes and perception (KAP) with gender, occupational sector and educational qualification and one way analysis of variance to compare the difference in means of KAP between the three different groups of professionals and gender. Results: Out of the 550 dental professionals who participated in the study, 293 (53%) were dental students, 83 (15%) were dental staff and 174 (32%) were dentists. Dental students showed higher KAP values towards radiation hazards protection followed by dentists and dental staff. Conclusion: From the results obtained in this study, it was noted that the KAP level with regard to radiation protection was higher among dental students compared to dentists, and the least KAP value was found with dental staff.