Abstract
Objectives: There is a major health and social problem in Ghana as a result of high levels of teenage pregnancy. Contraceptive use in Ghana among the adolescents is low and few studies have researched into it. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of knowledge, awareness and attitude towards the practice of contraception of the adolescents’ in Mankranso, Ghana. This is a cross-sectional study with a structured questionnaire. The responses were scored and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.
Results: This study revealed that most of the adolescents lack knowledge about modern contraceptives such as jadelle and implanon. Majority of the respondents (94%) indicated that they have never used any contraception before. The main contraceptive device observed to have been used by respondents was condom (10%).Most of them strongly agreed that the use of contraceptive by a girl before her first birth can lead to infertility and use of condom does not make sex enjoyable. Religious doctrine and stigmatization were strongly agreed with index of 85% and 84% respectively as challenges faced by adolescents in seeking contraceptive services.
Conclusion: This study showed that the level of knowledge on contraceptives usage among the adolescent was low. The usage of modern contraceptives was not preferred based on the negative attitude they have about contraceptives.
Keywords:Contraceptive; Cross-Sectional Study; Stigmatization; Adolescent; Teenage Pregnancy; Jadelle and Implanon
Opinion
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (SARSCoV)
is a virus that caused the first major pandemic of the third
millennium [1]. SARS-CoV first emerged in 2002, before that, it was
simply thought of as a benign virus, causing a common cold [1].
Fortunately, the medical and scientific community demonstrated
marvellous efforts in the understanding and control of this first
pandemic within a short time [2]. Seventeen years later, SARS-CoV-2
emerged for the first time. Actually, Corona Virus Disease 2019
(COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, is a pandemic that has affected
more than 200 countries and it represents a really global emergency
[3]. The SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted by inhalation or contact with
infected droplets and the COVID-19 incubation period ranges from
2 to 14 days. Many people are asymptomatic, but anyone can have
mild to severe symptoms. The most common symptoms are fever,
cough, malaise and tiredness [4,5]. In addition, patients refer muscle
aches, headache, loss of taste, loss of smell, sore throat, chest pain,
congestion, runny nose, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. According
to CDC (USA Center for Diseas Control and Prevention) older
adults and people who have severe underlying medical conditions
like heart or lung disease or diabetes seem to be at higher risk for
developing more serious complications from COVID-19 illness [5].
In fact, it may progress to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress
syndrome (ARDS) and multi organ dysfunction. There are currently
no specific treatments, cure, or vaccine for COVID-19. Several drugs
and vaccine candidates are being studied in large clinical trials, but
currently the only arms to combat COVID-19 are preventive hygiene
measures such as social distancing, mask-wearing, quarantine and
contact tracing. Although, it has been suggested that dentists must
limit their practice only to emergencies, as restrictive measures to
limit contagion, this is not always possible [6].
In fact, the main reasons to see a dentist are the pain or
swelling in mouth, at face or at neck; in addition, there are other
reasons such as orthodontic therapies or oral neoplastic lesions. In
particular, oral cancer that must be identified in the early stages
and treated immediately to avoid more serious outcomes, whilst
orthodontic treatments require continuous monitoring by the
orthodontist, who must evaluate the efficacy of the treatment.
These treatments have need both regular and timely follow-up
appointments [6]. This is where new technologies have come into
play. A realistic and immediate solution, to limit the contact between
dentists and patients, is the teledentistry. The term was first used
by Cook in 1997, who defined teledentistry as the practice of using
video‑ conferencing technologies to advice the treatment based
on diagnosis over a distance [7]. The teledentistry can be used for
preoperative assessment of an oral lesion, diagnostic purposes, or
for consultation with another dental specialist. It can be particularly
useful after the surgical excision of a lesion for postoperative
wound assessment, from either a photograph of the surgical wound, via a health-monitoring machine, or an SMS from patients
if they had an unusual symptom [8]. Teledentistry can be used
tele-monitoring in place of conventional clinics follow-up, during
orthodontic treatments. To reduce conventional clinics follow-up
during orthodontic treatments, it is also possible carried out an
orthodontic treatment based on dental aligners. These devices are
realized with a digital technology that combined CAD (computer
aided design) and CAM (computer aided design manufacturing)
technology [9].
In summary, the orthodontist takes an impression of the
patient’s teeth, then he makes a dental model which is used to
create a digital scan of the teeth. Using this teeth scan, a specific
software suggests the steps or stages between the current and
desired tooth position, in order to create aligners for each step
of the orthodontic treatment. Then these virtual dental aligners
are printed with a 3d printer and patients can use the removable
aligners that gradually straighten their teeth. Currently, the
main role of teledentistry is only diagnostic, but in future other
applications have also been involved oral surgery. According to
Choi et al. telesurgery is an emerging surgical system that utilizes
wireless networking and robotic technology to connect surgeons
and patients who are distantly located from one another [10]. In
the past the main limits of this robotic technology was the absence
tactile sense. In fact, vision and tactile sense are the principal
sensory inputs employed by humans in object manipulation tasks
[11]. Using haptic technology, an oral surgeon will be able to
realize a surgical treatment. The word “haptics” comes from the
greek words haptikos (meaning able to come into contact with)
and haptesthai (meaning touch or contact). Haptic technology is
currently used in robot -assisted telesurgery. The haptic interface
is a device that allows a virtual or remote environment to stimulate
the sense of touch on a human operator. Today, a number of haptic
interfaces with different structures have been developed, and are
commercially available. These devices have been widely used in a
multitude of applications such as graphical user interfaces, games,
education and training etc [11].
Using haptic interfaces it will be possible, also, to carry out an
oral surgical procedure in telesurgery. The idea to use telesugery
is not science fiction, but has become reality. It is our opinion that
the development of this technologies, will allow perform complex
oral surgical procedures with more accuracy, speed, and safety.
The safety of teledentistry is the physical distance between dentist
and patients. In the future, if we will have new pandemic, physical
distance will play a crucial part in helping to prevent the spread of
these virus, thus the development of teledentistry, telesurgery or
telemedicine must be a priority.
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