AIM   To investigate and analyze whether dental interns have been knowledgeably prepared for managing patients with cardiovascular diseases and whether there is demand for relevant training, so as to provide reference for developing better training program.

  METHODS   Questionnaires were sent to the dental interns in three medical colleges via the WeChat miniprogram “Questionnaire Star”. The questionnaire included the basic information of the respondents, their attitude toward treating patients with cardiovascular diseases in dental clinic, their current training status and their demand for relevant training, and a quiz with questions testing the basics of cardiovascular diseases, the relationship between cardiovascular diseases and oral health, and the essentials in treating dental patients with cardiovascular diseases.

  RESULTS   Totally 60 valid questionnaires were returned. 80% of the respondents had met with cardiovascular patients in their dental practice, 88.33% of the interns felt worried about managing such patients and would ask for guidance from their supervising dentists and 76.67% of the interns would like to take a training program with practice classes to obtain the knowledge of managing dental patients with cardiovascular diseases. For the quiz, 96.67% of the interns scored less than 50%. Among all the tested knowledge points, the diagnostic criterion for hypertension was the best mastered, with 28.33% of the interns precisely grasped its essence. Interns who had previously performed outstandingly in the internal medicine exam tended to score higher in this quiz.

  CONCLUSION   Dental interns are obviously short of the knowledge in managing patients with cardiovascular diseases, and relevant training programs with better form and quality are in demand.