OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore and assess the community pharmacists’ attitudes, beliefs and practices regarding the oral health services in the Malaysian setting.

METHODS: A Cross-sectional study design was used to conduct this study. An anonymous self-administered questionnaire was developed and distributed among community pharmacies within Kuala Lumpur and Selangor states areas. the participant must be either a fully registered pharmacist or provisionally registered pharmacist in Malaysia. The data collection was carried out from beginning of November to the end of December 2018.

RESULTS:

The overall response rate was 80.78% (206/255). The age of the majority of the participants (87%) was less than 40 years old. Overall, approximately 50% of the pharmacists provided two to five oral health consultations per week and two to five over the counter oral health products recommendations per week. The main services provided by community pharmacists in were the provision of OTC treatments (93.7%), referral of consumers to dental or medical practitioners when appropriate (82.5%) and identify signs and symptoms of oral health problems in patients (77.2%). Additionally, more than 80% of the pharmacists viewed positively and supported integrating oral health promotion and preventive measures into their practices. The most commonly reported barriers to extending the roles of pharmacists in oral healthcare include lack of adequate knowledge, lack of training resources and lack of oral health educational promotion materials.

CONCLUSIONS:The study shows that community pharmacists in Malaysia had been providing a certain level of oral health services and play an important role in oral health. The Findings highlighted the need of an interprofessional partnership between the Malaysian pharmacy professional bodies with Malaysian dental associations to develop, implement and evaluate evidence-based resources, guidelines and scope of oral health in pharmacy curricula and services to improve oral healthcare service within Malaysian communities.