Title

Knowledge, attitude and awareness of photodynamic therapy among orthodontic practitioners: A questionnaire-based survey

Authors

Javed Sodawala^1,*, Ranjit H. Kamble¹, Srishti Jain², Arti Mishra³, Vaibhav Khare⁴ & Ravitheja Vadali⁵

Affiliation

¹Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Sharad Pawar Dental College, Sawangi (Meghe), Maharashtra, India; ²Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Chhattisgarh Dental College and Research Institute, Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, India; ³Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Maitri College of Dentistry and Research Centre, Durg, Chhattisgarh, India; ⁴Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Triveni Institute of Dental Sciences and Research Centre, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India; ⁵Shri Nidhi Dental Care, Guntur Andhra Pradesh, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Javed Sodawala - E-mail: drjavedazher@gmail.com; Phone: +91 7000858658
Ranjit H. Kamble - E-mail: ranjitkamble2506@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9822231975
Srishti Jain - E-mail: srishtijain3112@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9340897288
Arti Mishra - E-mail: drartimishra9111@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9691567341
Vaibhav Khare - E-mail: Vaibhavkhare000@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9669536036
Ravitheja Vadali - E-mail: ravi.ortho88@yahoo.com; Phone: +91 9705251818

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received August 1, 2026; Revised August 31, 2026; Accepted August 31, 2026, Published August 31, 2026

Abstract

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a minimally invasive light-based treatment with antimicrobial applications relevant to orthodontic care. Therefore, it is of interest to assess the knowledge, attitudes, awareness and perceptions of PDT among 153 orthodontic practitioners using a 28-item questionnaire with good reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.82). Most respondents were younger than 30 years (65.4%) and had less than 4 years of experience (66%), while 88.9% scored above 8/10 for knowledge and 92.16% correctly identified the PDT mechanism. Awareness of PDT's role in antibiotic resistance was 82.35%, 66.7% favored its inclusion in postgraduate curricula and 58.2% identified equipment cost and technical requirements as barriers. Orthodontic practitioners therefore showed strong knowledge and favorable attitudes toward PDT, but structured training and curricular integration may facilitate routine clinical adoption.

Keywords

Photodynamic therapy (PDT), orthodontist, knowledge, attitude, awareness, knowledge, attitude, awareness (KAA), survey

Citation

Sodawala et al. Bioinformation 22(8): 5448-5453 (2026)

Edited by

Hiroj Bagde

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.