Practicing Doctors\' Awareness and Perception of Tooth Extraction Risks in Patients on Antiplatelet Therapy

Objective: This cross-sectional study was designed to identify the awareness and perception of dental and medical practitioners, both registered or in teaching clinics, in Saudi Arabia concerning antiplatelet agents and to evaluate their knowledge of recent guidelines for managing patients on antiplatelet medications before dental procedures.Materials and methods: A prevalidated and pretested structured and self-administered questionnaire was administered to practicing physicians/ dentists in Jazan province through Google Forms.The questionnaire consisted of two sections.The first section contains questions regarding demographic data, including gender, years of practice, place of practice, and level of education.The second section contains 10 questions on the topic of this paper.Results: A total of 550 questionnaires were administered to various specialists, physicians, dentists, final-year students, and interns, of which we got 418 responses from 550 delivered questionnaires.The results showed that 60.11% of dentists versus 50.83% of physicians preferred to discontinue antiplatelet therapy before certain oral surgical procedures.In cases of extraction of teeth in patients with heart disease, 70.42% of medical practitioners and 76.96% of dentists were in favor of consulting a cardiologist before holding the antiplatelet therapy.39.88% of dentists and 31.25% of physicians claim to be aware of the latest NHS guidelines, while 41.57% of dentists and 45.00% of physicians were not.In addition, 18.53% of dentists and 23.75% of physicians were unaware of the availability of such guidelines. Conclusion:The awareness and perception of practicing medical and dental doctors concerning dental surgical procedures on patients with antiplatelet therapy is crucial for optimizing patient care.While there is recognition of the risk of bleeding, there may be a need for advanced information on current guidelines and evidence-based practices to manage these patients successfully.