Oral health and HIV: What dental students need to know

Introduction Dentists have an important role in reducing new HIV infections by early diagnosis and need to know how to treat patients with HIV and understand universal cross-infection control. In many parts of the world, healthcare professionals struggle to provide care because of barriers including stigma and cultural attitudes. Aim To investigate the effectiveness of a brief educational intervention in understanding/changing the views of dental school deans regarding the quality of the oral health and HIV/AIDS teaching and their willingness to undertake a curriculum review if appropriate. Methods Questionnaires before and after interactive presentation to the deans of 30 Indonesian dental schools and discussion. Results Only six of 30 dental school deans believed that their HIV undergraduate dental student teaching was inadequate before the intervention, but 29 of 30 deans recognised the need to review their curriculum after the intervention. Whilst the majority (24/30) felt that their HIV teaching was adequate, good or excellent, the majority also thought that their students would find it difficult to treat patients with HIV. Conclusion The brief educational intervention was effective in improving the understanding/changing the views of dental school deans regarding the quality of HIV/AIDS teaching and learning at their own institution and engaging a willingness to undertake curriculum review.