Introduction:

Hepatitis B and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are viral diseases of great public health importance due to their high epidemiological indexes. The representation of these diseases generates discriminatory and prejudiced attitudes, mainly in the access to health services. The objective is to assess the current knowledge and the existence of discrimination by the attitudes of dentistry academics when facing HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

Materials and methods:

This is an exploratory cross-sectional study conducted in a public college of dentistry. The sample consisted of 462 (88 %) academics who agreed to participate. In data collection, we used a semi-structured questionnaire, created for this study. In the data analysis, we used the chi-square test of proportions, the significance level was 5 %.

Results:

It was found that, although the majority of the students affirm that they knew or have had some information about aids and Hepatitis B, only 58.9 % and 55.8 %, respectively, actually had some knowledge on etiological agents. On the attitudes of students in dental treatment practice asked if they would accept treating patients infected with HIV and HBV, the acceptance of treatment performance reached 85.3 % and 91.8 %, respectively. However, a considerable part of the students believed that there are differences in clinical procedures to be followed.

Conclusion:

There are students' knowledge gaps in relation to AIDS and Hepatitis B. The attitudes of students, contrasted to the given dental care for patients infected, were considered discriminatory; in addition, there was a greater fear of being assisted by an infected professional, instead of having this infected professional treat sick dentistry patients.

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