Current Trends Towards Management Options of Active Carious Lesions among Pediatric Dentists Across India: A Questionnaire Based Survey

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Various approaches are used by pedodontistsacross India and all over world for management of activecarious lesion considering various factors as patient needs.Current study aimed to evaluate current trends towardsmanagement options of active carious lesions among PediatricDentists across India.Material and methods: Web based cross sectional surveywas done. A thirteen point questionnaire was prepared andsent via email to pediatric dentists registered in Indian Societyof Pediatric and preventive Dentistry across India. Data wasanalysed using descriptive statistics and chi square test withsignificance level p<0.05.Results: A total of 212 pediatric dentists responded out of 1150sent e-mail and results from their responses concluded thatmajority of the pedodontists (83.96%) are using noninvasivecaries management techniques in private practice, 14.1%responded that they don’t use and 1.88% pedodontists didn’tresponded. Most of the respondents (61.79%) use Silverdiamine fluoride (SDF) in their clinical practice where as35.84% pedodontists not using SDF in their practice.Conclusion: Within limitation of the study, it can be concludedthat Current trends towards management of active cariouslesion among pediatric dentists is shifting towards minimalinvasive dentistry where current material of choice amongthem is Silver diamine fluoride. Although more studies areencouraged to enhance knowledge and awareness about SDFuse in future.