Knowledge and Attitude of Dentists toward Silver Diamine Fluoride in Saudi Arabia.

INTRODUCTION

Dental caries is managed by two approaches: prevention which focuses on inhibiting the caries progression, and the traditional approach which is treating caries by drilling and filling. Logically, the first approach is more effective. One of the recently marketed preventive methods for preventing and inhibiting the progression of dental caries is silver diamine fluoride (SDF), which is proven to be minimally invasive and cost-effective, SDF has proven to have a significant success rate in caries prevention, especially in the early childhood caries.

OBJECTIVE

The study aims to evaluate general practitioners' SDF clinical experience, knowledge, professional behavior, and attitudes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was a cross-sectional study and we utilized a random sampling of Saudi general dental practitioners from different places in the Hail region, KSA. The study was conducted using papered interview and an online questionnaire followed by educating the dentists about SDF.

RESULTS

Dentists were asked about SDF, 62.7% answered that they heard about SDF topical application, but the dentists who answered all questions correctly are only 14.89% with no statistically significant difference among gender, age, or sector.

CONCLUSION

This study had several limitations. It only included the dental GPA in the Hail region, Saudi Arabia. As is the case with all surveys, only a limited number of questions could be asked. Thus, the information to be obtained is also limited. Future research should therefore include other questions to clarify other aspects which we could not explore in this research.

HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE

Alshammari AF, Alenzi RH, Alanezi AA, Knowledge and Attitude of Dentists toward Silver Diamine Fluoride in Saudi Arabia. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2021;14(5):662-665.