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. 2024 Sep 24;12(19):1907.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare12191907.

Influence of Academic Training and Professional Experience on the Management of Deep Caries Lesions

Sebastiana Arroyo-Bote  1 , David Ribas-Perez  2 , Catalina Bennasar Verges  1 , Diego Rodriguez Menacho  2 , Paloma Villalva Hernandez-Franch  2 , Ignacio Barbero Navarro  2 , Antonio Castaño Séiquer  2
Affiliations

Influence of Academic Training and Professional Experience on the Management of Deep Caries Lesions

Sebastiana Arroyo-Bote et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

Background/objectives: Managing caries lesions that affect the inner third of the dentin is crucial to ensuring pulp vitality; the clinician must make decisions that will affect the vitality of the tooth. Our purpose is to understand the behavior of Spanish dentists in treating deep cavities and to examine whether variations exist based on their academic training and/or years of professional experience.

Methods: This study was approved by the ethics committee of the Balearic Islands CEI-IB. A survey was conducted using the SurveyMonkey platform with 11 questions, the first 4 of which focused on defining the characteristics of the respondents. The following six concerned a clinical case of deep caries in tooth number 4.7, and the last regarded the opinion of the actual treatment of the case. The survey was sent by email in April 2022. The results were analyzed with the SPSS 29.0 program using the chi-square test.

Results: A total of 347 responses were obtained (93.95%), and those surveyed stated that they apply minimal intervention concepts in their treatments, with 90.49% performing conservative dentistry treatments daily. A total of 56.48% of the respondents had bachelor's degrees, 12.39% had graduated, 33.14% had a postgraduate degree, 38.90% had a master's degree, and 17% had a doctorate. Most (40.63%) had been in professional practice for 16-30 years.

Conclusions: Significant differences were identified regarding years of professional experience in terms of decision-making in methods of treatment and the choice of materials used for pulp protection. Likewise, significant differences were found regarding the academic training of the respondents, the cavity cleaning method selected, and the use of chemical substances for removing carious dentin. We can conclude that academic training and years of professional practice influence decision-making at some points in treating deep caries lesions.

Keywords: academic training; caries lesions; conservative dentistry; dentist behavior; pulp vitality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A,B) Initial stage of deep caries in a second permanent molar. (C,D) Tooth treated with selective caries removal, bioactive material (Biodentine(r)) application, and filled with bulKfill.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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