Attitude/practices of oral healthcare provider to management of HIV/AIDS patients in the Pacific.

This paper expands a quantitative study which measured dentists attitudes, practices, knowledge, education, policies towards HIV positive patients in the Pacific region in order to identify potential barriers to the provision of adequate dental treatment. 300 questionnaires were sent out to all the 14 countries in the region. However, only the following six countries responded Fiji, Solomons, Vanuatu, Samoa, FSM, and Cook Islands of which 91.6% worked for the government sector, 4.2% respondents for academic and 4.2% were private oral health care providers (OHCP). These were 32.6% of dentists and 67.4% Paradentals. Results of the research showed that the major reasons for the unwillingness among oral health care providers mainly described fear of HIV transmission in dental clinics, inadequate infection control procedures in the clinics to prevent cross transmission or lacked knowledge about HIV patient management in dental clinics. There is a need for continuing education on management of HIV/AIDS positive dental patients covering such areas as management, infection control, policies, education and ethical issues concerning HIV positive patients for oral health care providers in the South Pacific region. Limitations of study: Since this is an incomplete (six countries responded out of fourteen countries) survey, generalization on attitudes and practices of OHCP in the Pacific can not be made yet. Also, larger sample is required to make definite conclusion about oral health care practices in the Pacific.