Contemporary dental caries management concepts in paediatric dentistry: A survey of awareness and practice of a group of gulf cooperation council dentists.

Abstract

Introduction: Debatable clinically relevant child dental caries management concepts exist; restoring a carious primary molar (RCM), the choice of pulpotomy medicament (PM), the “Hall Technique” (HT), and sealing of dental caries (SDC). Our aim was to assess the knowledge and practice of dentists treating children in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region of the aforementioned contemporary concepts.

Methodology: Paediatric Dentists (PDs) and General Dental Practitioners (GDPs) who treated children completed a questionnaire (N=150) covering: RCM choices; choice of PM; knowledge and practice of HT and acceptance of SDC in primary and permanent teeth. Statistical analysis was conducted using Chi-Square test (p<0.05).

Results: For RCM: 76% of those surveyed would remove non-pulpal caries in an asymptomatic lower D and restore with composite (33%), glass ionomer or conventional stainless steel crown (SSC) (17.4%), amalgam (7.4%) and zirconia (0.7%). The remaining 24% would seal caries (HT SSC). For PM: 40.7% chose Ferric Sulphate, followed by Formocresol (36.7%), Mineral Trioxide Aggregate (14%) and Calcium hydroxide (8.7%); For HT: 60.6% had knowledge of HT but 81.5% never used it. For SDC: sealing caries in primary & permanent teeth was rejected by 56.6% & 53.1% respectively. GDPs and PDs choices differed significantly with RCM, HT (knowledge and practice) (p=0.007, 0.003 and 0.003 respectively).

Conclusion: Overall the surveyed dentists practicing in the GCC disagreed on RCM, PM with reluctance to accept new concepts like the HT and SDC. PDs choices of RCM differed from GDPs, and their awareness of HT and practice of HT were more favourable.