People's Knowledge and Opinions about getting Dental Implants with other Conventional Treatment Modalities in Herat City Habitats, Afghanistan

This study aimed to evaluate the people's understanding, expectations, and knowledge of dental implants compared with other treatment modalities as a treatment option for replacing missing teeth among a selected sample of Herat urban habitats in Herat City, Afghanistan.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was done on a randomly selected 420 Heart City habitats from all 15 districts over one month, from May to June 2022, to assess the knowledge and opinion of Herat City habitats toward dental implants as an option for replacing missing teeth. An organized questionnaire collected the data with open questions, a direct interview, and the introduction and demonstration of a short animation about the dental implant procedure. The data were categorized by similar answers, interred, and analyzed with IBM-SPSS version 25.

Among the 420 participants in this study, 67.9% of respondents had heard about dental implants, and 28.6% had information about dental implant and surgical procedure. Among all participants, 59% preferred dental implants for their missing teeth replacement, and 3.8% had received dental implants before. Education significantly influenced the information about surgical procedures of dental implants (p < 0.05), knowledge about dental implants (p < 0.05), and priority of dental implants for missing teeth replacement (p < 0.05). According to the source of information, most of them got information from medical staff and their family and friends. Other sources of information are dedicated to television, cyberspace, and advertisements.

The survey concluded that there was an unacceptable level of awareness regarding using dental implants as a treatment option for replacing missing teeth. Medical staff, family, and friends are the main sources of information. The level of education has an essential role in knowledge and awareness about dental implants.