KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES IN ANALGESIC PRESCRIPTION FOR ENDODONTIC PAIN AMONG DENTAL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS - A SURVEY

Introduction and Aim: Pain is often the most common complaint of patients visiting a dentist. Prescription of an analgesic plays a critical role in the management of endodontic pain.However there are no precise guidelines for the pharmacological management of endodontic pain. Hence the aim of this study was to determine the prescription pattern of analgesics for management of endodontic pain among the dental undergraduate students. Materials and method: A prospective cross sectional survey was conducted among 100 undergraduate dental students through a self administered questionnaire containing close ended questions. The responses were collected, tabulated in excel sheets and analysed using SPSS software version 22.0. Descriptive statistics and Chi square tests were used to evaluate the association. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. Results and discussion: From the results of the present study, most participants knew about analgesic prescriptions for endodontic pain. Chi square test was done, p value=0.00( p< 0.05) and was statistically significant. However there was no significant difference in the practice of analgesic prescription among different levels of education among the undergraduates (p>0.05). Conclusion: The present study concluded that undergraduate dental students have adequate knowledge and a fairly uniform practise in the analgesic prescription for endodontic pain.