Restorative Treatment Strategies Reported by French University Teachers

Abstract

Disparities among dental schools concerning the teaching and practice of cariology and operative dentistry can lead to variations in students' treatment modalities that can have health and economic consequences for patients and third party providers. The purpose of this study was to assess caries management strategies taught in French dental schools employing a questionnaire used in a previous study involving private dentists. The study population consisted of 180 teachers of operative dentistry. Each teacher received a questionnaire and a reply-paid envelope. The questionnaire assessed their treatment strategies, knowledge and beliefs about selected aspects of diagnosis, and treatment of dental caries. After one reminder, the response rate was 49.1 percent. The results illustrate a wide disparity among French teachers concerning restorative treatment thresholds for approximal surfaces, opinions about the rate of caries progression, and the need to monitor lesions near the DEJ. The teachers' attitudes differed from those of private practitioners: they tended to intervene surgically at a later stage, but they would intervene earlier in the treatment of the carious process than would Scandinavian dentists. This study may help in encouraging dental faculties to develop a consensus on issues related to diagnosis and management of dental caries.Dr.

Dentists’ use of caries risk assessment and individualized caries prevention for their adult patients: findings from The Dental Practice-Based Research Network

“…It has been suggested that practicing dentists may lack the skills to evaluate the scientific literature or that they may not know where to access information on the best current evidence in dentistry (25, 31). For whatever reason, our data are consistent with other studies that indicate there is considerable variability in clinical practice related to caries regardless of where the study was performed (32–36).…”

The concepts of minimally invasive dentistry and its impact on clinical practice: a survey with a group of Dentists in Saudi Arabia

“…For the occlusal caries lesion, the majority selected to restore when there is moderate loss of tooth substance and/or caries in the outer 1/3 of the dentin according to the radiograph. This was in agreement to what was found in Sweden [6], France [7] and Scandinavia [8]. However, they represented only 48% of the sample that was lower than the other studies.…”

“…For proximal caries lesion, the majority of responses were either restoring the tooth when the lesion reaches the enameldentin junction or progressed to the dentin outer third. Similar results were obtained from Swedish dentists [6], the French teachers [7] and the Californian dentists [1]. In our study, female dentists tend to wait until the caries lesion progressed before restoring the tooth in comparison to males.…”

“…However, the effect of the age was not significant on the selection of the caries lesion stage. The choice of resin composite as the first restorative material for proximal lesions was in agreement with all previous studies [1,[7][8][9][10].…”

“…About 20% of the sample chose to start to restore the occlusal caries at more advanced stage. This was more than the results reported in Sweden [6] and France [7]. Composite was the first material of choice for the Saudi dentists that is, again, in agreement with different countries.…”