Awareness Of Sturge Weber Syndrome Among Dental Students

Abstract

Introduction

Sturge-Weber syndrome is a rare, congenital, neuro-oculo-cutaneous disorder which is characterised extra-orally by unilateral port wine stains on the face, glaucoma, seizures and mental retardation, and intra-orally by ipsilateral gingival haemangioma which frequently affects the maxilla or mandible.The aim of the study is to create awareness about Sturge Weber syndrome among dental students.

Materials and methods

An online study questionnaire of 15 questions was circulated among 112 dental students of Saveetha Dental College .The data was compiled in Excel and the results were statistically analysed using spss software.

Results and discussion

The results shows that 81.82% of respondents heard of Sturge-Weber Syndrome, 57.58% knew  it was a birth defect, 54.55% knew SWS is caused by mutation in GNAQ gene(, 81.82% think hemangiomas in the region of oral cavity are always of clinical importance to the dental profession,36.36% are only aware that it is a lifelong condition,24.24% among the PG respondents(34.34%) are aware that port wine stains on the face and 34.34% of PGs  knew Intra-Orally SWS is characterized by ipsilateral gingival haemangioma.

Conclusion

Within the limits of study,PG respondents have greater awareness than UG respondents. Among all, results of this survey shows that half of them are aware about the Sturge-Weber Syndrome while others are not.