RESUMO
The dental treatment planning for occlusal caries is quite variable among dental clinicians. The objective of present study was to assess such variations among the general dental practitioners. A cross-sectional study design was used for this investigation. After oral examination of 8-1 0 years old children who were referred to the pediatric department, 6 first molar teeth with occlusal caries in Grades I, II and III [Espelid et. al., 1994] were selected. The cavity specifications for these teeth with fissure caries were confirmed by 5 specialists, members of dental faculty. The colored photographs of occlusal surfaces as well as bitewing radiographs of selected teeth were displayed for 150 randomly selected general dental practitioners. Dentists were asked to record their diagnosis and treatment plans for these conditions. The SPSS software was used for data analysis. The Kruskal-Wallis and ordinal regression tests were used to detect statistical significance level. As a gold standard treatment plan for restoration of occlusal caries, 36.1% suggested sealant therapy and 27.8% selected PRR procedure. Overall, four different procedures were suggested for non-carious fissures by dentists. They were included: 1] no treatment [36.4%], 2] better dental care plus fluoride therapy [33.1%] and 3] sealant therapy [22.3%]. For decayed fissures that were limited to enamel, 5 different treatment plans; and for more extended cavities 6 different treatment plans were suggested. Age, sex, place of graduation, experience with pediatric patients, were evaluated for possible correlation. Among others, sex was the only factor significantly related to treatment planning among dentists [P=0.013]. Based on this assessment, there are many variations among dentists in restorative treatment planning and they mostly choose the more invasive procedures. This evidence indicates that dentists should learn and apply more preventive procedures