The Willingness of Dental Medicine Students in Handling Positive HIV Patients

Abstract

Background: Dental care for HIV positive people plays an important role in increasing quality of life,
tolerance and effectiveness of treatment, nutritional intake, and treatment success rates. Therefore, it is
important to ensure optimal dental care for this group of people, especially since many of them, with or without
knowledge of their serological status, are now using dental services. Purpose: is to assess the willingness
of dental students to treat HIV positive people. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional
survey was conducted. In the city of Surabaya, there are around 184,000 HIV positive people. This research
was conducted in 2019 using a questionnaire designed to obtain information about student demographics,
self-assessment of HIV, attitudes toward infection control practices, perceptions of occupational risks, and
willingness to provide care for HIV positive people. Results: The response rate is 76.3 percent. More than
77 percent of respondents are in the age group of 19 years to age 25 years. Good knowledge about HIV is
only owned by 35 percent of respondents. While around 7.1 percent, showed significant concern about job
transmission. Conclusions: From the results of this study, the authors suggest the need for a comprehensive
education or motivation program for the next generation of dentists in Indonesia to ensure adequate care for
HIV positive people.