Oral cancer knowledge background of Dental School Students of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul

Oral cancer is a priority of the Ministry of health and dentists should be able to adhere to the available programs providing adequate prevention and diagnosis. Objectives: To assess level of knowledge of PUCRS?s dentistry students about risk factors and behaviors linked to oral cancer and verify the amount of interest in continuing education on the topic. Materials and methods: Questionnaires were applied to 289 students of 5 years of graduation. Results were analyzed using SPSS version 10.0 and considered significant when p ? 0.05. Results: 100% of students identified carcinoma as the most prevalent malignant oral disease. They demonstrated adequate knowledge about oral cancer and high rate of accuracy in identification of risk factors, regardless of the year of graduation. Knowledge increased with the advancement in the course, being the best performance obtained in 2nd and 5th years, when taking classes of Oral Pathology, Public Health II and Oral Medicine, respectively. Conclusions: There were significant differences of correctness amongst semesters, demonstrating that the advance in course reflects in a higher education in this . Most students did not attend thematic courses in continuing education, however identified the importance of dentist in the prevention and diagnosis of oral cancer.