Attitudes And Behavior Of Dentists Regarding Management Of Deep Carious Lesion

Abstract

Objective: To assess the attitude and behavior of dentists for the management of deep carious lesions. Study Design and Setting: It was a cross sectional based study conducted at six dental institutes of Karachi from both government and private sectors. Methodology: The included participants were the dental graduates and post graduates working in different specialties of dentistry. Whereas graduates and post graduates not affiliated with any institution were excluded from the study. The Questionnaire comprises of two parts, first part was composed of participant’s demographic details and academic qualification, while the second part comprised of clinical scenarios regarding management of deep carious lesions. Results: From the 250 distributed questionnaires, 218 dentists returned the questionnaire giving a satisfactory response rate of 87.2%. There were 28% male and 72%% female dentists. The majority of dentists were aged between 25-35 years old. Complete caries removal was the management of choice by 72.5% of dentists for deep carious lesions. Conclusion: Complete caries removal was the most preferred treatment modality when the risk of dental pulpal exposure associated with caries excavation is low. However when the risk is high, step-wise excavation was preferred procedure by half of the participants.