Abstract

BRITEZ-DISTEFANO, Sonia; BANUELOS-GOMEZ, Fátima  and  MIREYA-JARA, Cynthia. Knowledge of duties and obligations that govern dental practice in Paraguay. Mem. Inst. Investig. Cienc. Salud [online]. 2022, vol.20, n.1, pp.6-13. ISSN 1812-9528.  https://doi.org/10.18004/mem.iics/1812-9528/2022.020.01.06.

Dental care requires compliance with all legal regulations regarding the care protocol, since both the professional and the patient must be protected anticipating any conflict that may arise. The objective of this study was to evaluate the level of knowledge about duties and obligations in dental practice in Paraguay. The study was descriptive, cross-sectional, observational, with a total sample of 100 dentists from the Rigoberto Caballero Central Police Hospital. The questionnaire had 20 questions of which 4 were about knowledge on sociodemographic and academic characteristics, 13 on duties and obligations in dental practice, 1 on training received on legislation, 1 on compliance with tax obligations and 1 on barriers used for protection againts X-ray. The level of knowledge was classified considering the percentage of correct answers: insufficient (<60%) and sufficient (≥60%). Eighty percent of those surveyed were female with an average age of 40 years. The level of general knowledge about duties and obligations that govern dental practice was sufficient in 71% of the surveyed dentists. No significant differences were found between the level of knowledge according to university (p = 0.21) and year of graduation (p = 0.34). The level of knowledge about duties and obligations that govern dental practice in Paraguay was sufficient, however, some specific aspects such as tax knowledge, documentations that govern the laws, receipt of commissions and notifications of communicable diseases must be even more explored, studied and disseminated.

Keywords : Professional practice; public health; legislation in dentistry; legal dentistry.

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