The familiarity and knowledge among specialists, under- and postgraduate students about photodynamic therapy

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the familiarity and knowledge regarding photodynamic therapy (PDT) amongst the specialists, undergraduate and postgraduate students in the academic dental institutes. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted among specialists, undergraduate and postgraduate students from three dental colleges. The three-sections questionnaire was distributed online to the targeted populations. The first section of the questionnaire aimed to collect the demographics variables of the respondents, while the second and third sections were dedicated to determining the familiarity and knowledge towards PDT, respectively. Results: Out of 700 respondents, only 403 (57.6%) responded to the questionnaire with an average age of 28.4 ±7.9 years, who were divided into 127 (31.5%) male and 276 (68.5%) female. Most respondents demonstrated an acceptable level of familiarity regarding PDT with postgraduates and specialists expressing significantly higher degree of familiarity than undergraduates. Additionally, the specialists showed a significantly higher degree of knowledge about PDT than postgraduates and undergraduates. Similarly, respondents with a longer professional career experience (>6 years) showed significantly higher knowledge than those with less years of experience. Overall, true familiarity of PDT was reported by only 25.1% of the respondents. Conclusion: Generally, respondents demonstrated average degrees of familiarity and knowledge about PDT. However, in-depth knowledge of the respondents was compromised suggesting integration of PDT topic in the dental curricula of undergraduates and postgraduates together with continuous education and training programs for dental practitioners.