Background: Awareness of post-extraction instruction is essential to avoid any complications and untoward events after the removal of a tooth. Hence the purpose of the study was to assess the knowledge of dental postextraction instructions among the general public in Kerala. Materials and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among the general public in Kerala. 1000 eligible subjects responded to the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of participants' demographics (age, gender, and educational level) and the 10 items to assess the knowledge of dental postextraction instructions. The questionnaire was constructed in Malayalam and English languages by bilingual experts. The questionnaire responses were collected and analysis was performed. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied to compare the knowledge across different groups. A level of significance was set at p< 0.05. Results: An overall mean knowledge score of 5.4 was observed among the study participants. An overall mean knowledge score of 5.4 was observed among the study participants. While study subjects with graduate or higher (5.6) educational level showed significantly higher knowledge of post-extraction instructions than those of high school (4.97) and secondary school (4.82) (p=0.026). Conclusion: The study participants from the Kerala region demonstrated adequate knowledge of post-extraction instructions.

Awareness, dental extraction, post-extraction, instructions, public.