Carious lesion management in children and adolescents by Australian dentists.

Background: The management of carious lesions in children and adolescents can have lifelong implications for the patient. The aim of this study was to assess the decision-making process of dentists when managing carious lesions in children and adolescents.Methods: Approximately, 11 000 dentists listed as members of the Australian Dental Association Inc. (ADA) and Australian and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry (ANZSPD) were emailed a link in April 2017 to a 19-question survey delivered by SurveyMonkey™.Results: In this study, 887 responses were received. In 'enamel-limited' carious lesions, dentists intervened most frequently in primary tooth approximal (365, 41.1%), followed by permanent tooth occlusal (295, 33.3%) and approximal (244, 27.5%), and primary tooth occlusal (203, 22.9%) surface carious lesions. Age, university of graduation, practicing state, decade of graduation and frequency of treatment of children between 6 and 15 years were significant demographic factors influencing the restorative threshold.Conclusions: Australian dentists reported significant variation in their management of approximal and occlusal carious lesions in both primary and permanent teeth. A substantial proportion of respondents would intervene surgically on non-cavitated enamel-limited lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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