Analysis of Dental Students’ Perspective on the Use of Laser Therapy in the Treatment of Oral Lesions Associated with Herpes Type 1

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the dentistry students’ perspective about the use of laser therapy in the treatment of herpes type 1. Material and Methods: this is a descriptive exploratory methodological study with a quantitative approach conducted from May to June 2018, with 146 undergraduate students of dentistry from a private higher education institution in the city of Teresina – Piauí – Brazil, through a structured questionnaire. Students who did not go through the subjects of semiology, periodontics, and oral pathology and who failed in the mentioned subjects were excluded. Those who presented approval in these subjects and who are performing clinical care were included. Data were inserted and analyzed in SPSS version 13.0 with a margin of error of 5%, using descriptive, inferential and comparative analysis techniques. This study was approved by the Ethics and Research Committee under protocol number 2.861.891. Results: regarding the knowledge about the lesion color, 48.63% stated that red color was related to herpes. 40.41% did not know the size of the lesion. About the duration of the lesion, the study revealed that 39.4% knew the frequency of lesion duration and, when associated with the texture, 45.20% did not know about the Herpes simplex type lesion. The study verified that 75% did not know which type of laser should be chosen for treatment, as well as 56.16% did not know the proper time to reuse the therapy, and 65.75% did not know the recurrence characteristic after using laser, with 80.13% being unaware of the period of relapse after the use of laser therapy. Conclusion: it was concluded that the knowledge of herpes simplex and laser therapy represented relevance, since the students are not aware of herpes simplex pathology and the laser therapy in the management of herpes. Laser therapy was considered an effective technology, which will allow rapid, effective and painless treatment, and will contribute to the reduction of drug interventions and improve the benefit-cost ratio