Dental Sealants: Knowledge, Value, Opinion, and Practice among Dental Professionals of Bathinda City, India

Abstract

Objective. The purpose of the study was to assess the knowledge, value, opinion, and practice regarding use of dental sealants among private dental practitioners in Bathinda City, Punjab, India. Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among all private dental practitioners in Bathinda City, Punjab. A self-administered structured questionnaire consisting of 28 items was used to assess their knowledge, value, opinion, and practice regarding dental sealants. One-way analysis of variance, independent sample t-test, and multivariate regression analysis were utilized for statistical analysis. Confidence level and level of significance were set at 95% and 5%, respectively. Results. The mean scores for knowledge, value, opinion, and practice were 41.8 ± 3.7, 18.7 ± 2.8, 18.1 ± 1.4, and 12.9 ± 2.3, respectively. Analysis revealed that qualification was statistically significant among all dependent variables (P ≤ 0.05); work experience was significantly associated with both knowledge and opinion means scores (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusion. The results suggest that dental practitioners had sufficient knowledge about dental sealants. They also acknowledge the importance of use of dental sealants. Practice of dental sealants in clinics was found adequate but they were not following the specific guidelines and standardized procedures.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice or Performance of Pit and Fissure Sealants of Dentists in Jodhpur City

“…[9][10][11] Dental professionals who had more than 10 years of work experience had less knowledge than those who had 5-10 or < 5 years of work experience and this is in accordance with a study conducted by San Martin et al, [12] Asawa. [11] This might be due to lack of frequent practice of dental sealants in their clinical practice.…”

“…Similar findings were also reported by Asawa. [11] Significant results were revealed from the present study regarding association between gender, qualification, work experience and the attitude towards the pit and FS usage. Male dental practitioners who were having the higher qualification and 5-10 years of work experience had a positive attitude toward the pit and FS usage in private practice.…”

“…[15] Similar findings were also reported by Asawa. [11] Practice Dental practitioners who were male and post-graduated showed significant results with pit and FS practice/ application among study subjects as compared to other practitioners.…”

“…Similar findings were also reported by Asawa. [11] This might be due to their updated information regarding sealant usage among people to prevent dental caries in future.…”

Pit and Fissure Sealant Awareness Among Parents, Teachers and Extent of its Usage Among Dental Practitioners

“…in Bhatinda India, 62.8% of practitioners in a study use sealants as a preventive method even if not very often [32]. In a study conducted in the Chennai suburbs, it was noticed that a very low number of clinicians contemplated use of sealants despite adequate 3.…”