Outcomes associated with dentists’ risk assessment

Abstract

We found incomplete compliance with guidelines for recommendation or administration of preventive treatment for patients at elevated risk for caries. We were also unable to identify any significant reductions in caries-related procedures for individuals receiving a fluoride intervention, compared with those who did not, when stratified by risk level.

Caries risk assessment in young adults using Public Dental Service guidelines and the Cariogram—a comparative study

“…The large size of the present study group will allow for a separate analysis concerning the accuracy of the risk assessment procedure made by the two professional groups. Patients at low risk may not need additional preventive interventions and should be offered extended recall intervals [20]. However, to our knowledge, estimations on the health-economic consequences of adequate risk assessments are not yet available.…”

Risk assessment of dental caries by using Classification and Regression Trees

“…Several researchers have attempted to establish a system for predicting an individual's future risk of caries. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Although most of them studied children, recently some tackled the a b s t r a c t Objectives: Being able to predict an individual's risks of dental caries would offer a potentially huge natural step forward toward better oral heath. As things stand, preventive treatment against caries is mostly carried out without risk assessment because there is no proven way to analyse an individual's risk factors.…”

“…more difficult problem of adults. 11,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24] A major difficulty with adults concerns the collection of appropriate clinical data. Many adult patients have already received numbers of restorations, and sometimes their restorative treatments are still going on; assessing their risk of caries may be difficult since the quality of treatment may itself be a risk factor.…”

Dentists and Preventive Oral Health Care

“…Incorporation of risk assessment, as an important part of clinical decision making, into routine dental practice has been increasingly emphasised in recent years (American Dental Association 1995, Brad Rindal et al 2006). The information gathered from caries risk assessment will be helpful in directing preventive and curative efforts according to patients' need, identifying the particular risk factors for each patient, and transferring this information to patient in order to encourage him/her for keeping recall appointments (Kidd and Nyvad 2003).…”

“…Since patients with elevated caries risk require receiving especial preventive regimen to reduce elevated incidence and severity of caries while those with low caries risk needs no additional preventive interventions and should have extended recall intervals. (Brad Rindal et al 2006). Caries risk assessment covers a variety of factors such as past caries experience, microbiological tests (salivary lactobacilli, mutans streptococci, and yeasts and salivary flow rate and buffer capacity), dietary habits, oral hygiene, and social factors (Hausen 2003).…”