Awareness on Nanoparticles Incorporation in Dental Materials among Undergraduate Students - A Cross Sectional Survey

Nanotechnology is widely used in day to day life including its use in medicine. Using nanotechnology it is easy to analyse the atoms , chemical bonds and molecules present between various compounds. Use of nanoparticles in the field of dentistry is called nano dentistry. Chemical, physical and biological aspects of nanoparticles should be taken into account while choosing nanoparticles for the use in the field of nano dentistry. Nanoparticles are used in innovations of dentistry. Nano materials can be used for preventing and curing oral diseases such as oral cancer and to maintain oral health care. This study aims at evaluating knowledge and awareness of nanoparticles incorporated in dental materials among undergraduate dental students. A questionnaire with a set of 9 questions to assess the students knowledge and awareness about nanoparticles incorporation in dental materials. The sample size of 99 participants of dental students of Saveetha Dental College were selected by a simple random sampling method. The participants were asked to fill the questionnaire in an online site called survey planet. The results were collected and statistically analysed. Chi square test was done and it was found that 71% of the participants were aware about the use of nanoparticles in dental materials, even though it is statistically not significant (p value- 0.436), 73% of respondents were aware about nanoparticle incorporation in impression materials with p value 0.449 (not significant) and 72% were aware about use of nanomaterials in titanium implants(p value-0.340). Within the limitations of the study, it can be observed that the undergraduate students at the Faculty of Dentistry of Saveetha were well aware about the use of nanoparticles in dental materials.