Oral Cancer: Awareness and Knowledge Among Dental Patients in Riyadh Sadeq Ali Al-Maweri 1,2 & Walid Ahmed Al-Soneidar 3 & Esam Dhaifullah 1,4 & Esam Saleh Halboub 2 & Bassel Tarakji 1 # American Association for Cancer Education 2015 Abstract More than 50 % of oral cancer cases are diagnosed at advanced stages. Public knowledge about oral cancer can help in prevention and early detection of the disease. The aim of the present study was to assess the levels of awareness and knowledge about signs and risk factors of oral cancer among dental patients in Saudi Arabia. A self-administered question- naire was used to collect information from 1410 randomly selected patients attending dental departments within public hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software. The significance level was set at P <0.05. The study revealed that only 62.4 % were aware of oral cancer. Some 68.2 and 56.5 %, respectively, were able to correctly identify tobacco and alcohol as risk factors. More than two thirds of subjects had no knowledge about any signs of oral cancer. Participants with lower than university education were significantly less aware, and had much less knowledge, of the signs and risk factors of oral cancer. The knowledge regarding oral cancer among Saudi dental patients is alarmingly low. Interventions to improve public knowledge about oral cancer and attitudes towards ear- ly diagnosis and treatment are urgently indicated. Keywords Oral cancer . Knowledge . Dental patients . Saudi Introduction Oral cancer is a significant health problem, being the sixth most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide [1]. More than 500,000 patients are estimated to have oral cancer globally with approximately 389,000 new cases per annum [2]. Notably, the incidence and mortality rates as a result of oral cancer are higher in developing countries as compared to the developed world [1, 3]. The etiology of oral cancer is multi-factorial, but the most important risk factors are tobacco use, excess alcohol con- sumption, betel quid chewing, and combinations of these habits [4]. Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection is impli- cated mainly in oropharyngeal cancer, and ultraviolet light is the main factor in lip cancer [5]. Other factors possibly impli- cated in mouth and oropharyngeal cancers include immuno- suppression [6] and familial and genetic factors [7]. The cancer has a strong association with smoking and al- cohol [4, 8]. The relative risk of oral cancer increases between 10- and 15-fold in smokers [8]. Unfortunately, smoking is a very common habit among young males in Saudi Arabia; according to previous research, the prevalence of smoking is 21 % among the general adult population and 25 % among * Sadeq Ali Al-Maweri sadali05@hotmail.com Walid Ahmed Al-Soneidar walid.al-soneidar@wsu.edu Esam Dhaifullah dhaifullah02@gmail.com Esam Saleh Halboub mhelboub@gmail.com Bassel Tarakji denpol@yahoo.co.uk 1 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences, AL-Farabi Colleges of Dentistry and Nursing, 11691 Riyadh, Saudi 2 Department of Oral Medicine and Diagnosis, Faculty of Dentistry, Sana’a University, Sana’a, Yemen 3 Department of Health Policy and Administration, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA 4 Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, Sana’a University, Sana’a, Yemen J Canc Educ DOI 10.1007/s13187-015-0924-y