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. 2025 Jul 21;25(1):1226.
doi: 10.1186/s12903-025-06644-5.

Knowledge and attitudes of Yemeni dentists in Sana'a city regarding silver diamine fluoride: a cross-sectional study

Nadhem Mohammed Sallam  1 , Somaia Mohammed Alshalfy  2 , Mohammed Nasser Alhajj  3   4
Affiliations

Knowledge and attitudes of Yemeni dentists in Sana'a city regarding silver diamine fluoride: a cross-sectional study

Nadhem Mohammed Sallam et al. BMC Oral Health. .

Abstract

Background: Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) has been widely used for treating dental caries and has recently been adopted as one of the minimal intervention treatments for dental caries. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and perception (KAP) of dentists in Sana'a City, Yemen, regarding SDF.

Methods: A paper-based cross-sectional study. The required sample size was 385. The questionnaire was submitted to 400 participants to address the issue of incomplete responses. The final number of respondents comprised 327 general dentists (85.9%), 5 pediatric dentists (1.5%), and 8 dentists from other specialties (2.5%) in Sana'a City, Yemen. A simple questionnaire comprising 30 questions was distributed to assess dentists' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions regarding the use of SDF. The data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics v25.0.

Results: The mean knowledge score of participants was 9.78 (SD = 2.19), with the highest knowledge score for the question (SDF is used to prevent progression of dental caries) (0.96, SD = 0.20). The mean attitude score was also acceptable, with the highest score for attitude being for the use of SDF as a good treatment for caries in children with behavioral difficulties and dental anxiety (1.17, SD = 0.89). The use of SDF to treat lesions in posterior primary teeth received the highest perception score. Participants aged 28 years or younger had a mean Knowledge score that was not significantly different from those older than 28 years (p = 0.072). However, the younger participants had a higher attitude score, with a significant difference (p = 0.043). Females had a significantly higher knowledge score than males (p = 0.020).

Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, the results showed a good level of KAP among dentists regarding the use of SDF. Poor aesthetics was the main reason respondents gave for not using SDF. Integration of SDF education in Yemen is highly recommended.

Keywords: Caries; Pediatric dentist; Prevention; Silver Diamine Fluoride; Yemen.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Ethics Committee at Thamar University, Yemen (Ref#: 2024001). All participants were informed about the purpose of the study, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Clinical trial number: Not applicable.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The distribution of responses across question 5 (the uses of SDF to treat dental caries) and question 6 (the advantages of SDF) of the knowledge scores
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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