To assess the attitude and practice on handling of extracted teeth among the students of a dental college in Southern India.
Materials and method. A self-designed questionnaire was distributed among the 162 third and fourth year BDS students of a dental college in Southern India. Independent t test was used to compare the mean attitude and practice scores across genders and years of study.
Results. More than half of the respondents felt that extracted teeth could cause infection if used without adequate precautions. About 93.2% of the students stated that extracted teeth need to be sterilized before use, while about 90.7% considered that mouth masks were necessary while disinfecting/sterilizing extracted teeth, as about 80.2% of them used the extracted teeth for preclinical exercises in the Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics. Most of the participants collected the extracted teeth from private practitioners. Hydrogen peroxide was the most commonly preferred storage medium of extracted teeth. Only 48.7% of the students answered correctly that extracted teeth should be disposed off in yellow garbage bins after use.
Conclusion. Although the dental students had a good attitude and practice on handling of extracted teeth for educational use, they did not indicate the most appropaite method of extracted teeth disposal after usage.