Current Cariology Education in Dental Schools in Spanish–Speaking Latin American Countries

Abstract

This study sought to provide an overview of current cariology education in Spanish-speaking Latin American dental schools. Data collection was via an eighteen-item survey with questions about curriculum, methods of diagnosis and treatment, and instructors' perceptions about cariology teaching. The response rate was 62.1 percent (n=54), and distribution of participating schools by country was as follows: Bolivia (four), Chile (four), Colombia (twenty-four), Costa Rica (one), Cuba (one), Dominican Republic (two), El Salvador (two), Mexico (six), Panama (two), Peru (four), Puerto Rico (one), Uruguay (two), and Venezuela (one). Forty percent of the responding schools considered cariology the key axis of a course, with a cariology department in 16.7 percent. All schools reported teaching cariology, but with varying hours and at varying times in the curriculum, and 77.8 percent reported having preclinical practices. The majority reported teaching most main teaching topics, except for behavioral sciences, microbiology, saliva and systemic diseases, caries-risk factors, root caries, erosion, and early caries management strategies. The most frequently taught caries detection methods were visual-tactile (96.3 percent), radiographic (92.6 percent), and the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) (61.1 percent). Respondents said their schools' clinics make an operative treatment decision when radiolucency is in the inner half of enamel (42.3 percent) for radiographic criteria and when the lesion is visually non-cavitated (5.8 percent). All respondents reported that their schools teach preventive strategies, but only 43.4 percent said they tie it to risk assessment and 40.7 percent said they implement nonsurgical management regularly.