ABSTRACT:
Introduction: Diabetes is a multifactorial disease with serious treatment implications in dentistry. Hence it is imperative that dental health care providers acquire a thorough understanding of the disease and the long-term risks posed to health as well as the management skills required to best serve chronic sufferers of the disease. This study aimed to explore levels of awareness amongst students and practitioners towards the management of diabetes related risk factors in the oral cavity. Materials and methods: A total of 302 participants responded amongst the 326 who gave verbal consent to participate in the survey. Results were tabulated and analysed using descriptive statistical methods using IBM SPSS Version 20.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, USA.). Results: The average completion rate of questionnaires was calculated at 89.88%. Over half the respondents were female (n= 191) (63.2%). Majority of the participants belonged to an age range of 20 and 29 years (n= 292) (96.7 %). 71.8% of general practitioners and specialists had been in practice for less than 5 years, with more than half of the group (n= 25) (64.1%) working part time hours in the college of dentistry. Discussion and implications: Cross sectional data from the study mandates the need for a discourse concerning changes that need to be considered to the undergraduate curriculum for dentistry to allow the developing clinician to build appropriate management skills to be able to handle patients at a higher risk for medical crises such as diabetes.