Conhecimento, atitude e prática de dentistas brasileiros sobre selamento de lesões de cárie em dentina de molares decíduos: validação de questionário e estudo transversal

Abstract

This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of Brazilian dentists toward the no-invasive sealing of dentin caries lesions in primary molars, and to evaluate the recommendation of the minimally invasive procedures. The study design followed a stepwise structure involving developing, validating, and applying a web-based self-administered questionnaire for Brazilian dentists. The steps in validating the questionnaire included the creating the initial pool of items, expert review, face validation, and final revision. The final version of the questionnaire consisted of 28 questions and was made available online using social media platforms. Snowball sampling was also used as recruitment technique. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression model (= 0.05%). The total number of respondents was 402, 64.1% have an academic degree related to pediatric dentistry. The knowledge of dentists about caries lesion sealing was average to good. Sealing of dentin caries lesion (69.1%) was the most recommended procedure for ICDAS 4 (affecting the outer half of the dentin). For ICDAS 4 (affecting the inner half of the dentin), ICDAS 5 and ICDAS 6, partial caries removal was the most recommended procedure (79.3%, 80.1%, 85.0%, respectively). It has demonstrated that obtaining knowledge through academic sources and holding a degree in pediatric dentistry increase the likelihood of recommending sealing of caries lesions for ICDAS 4 (outer half of dentin) by 2.85 and 1.98 times, respectively. The degree in pediatric dentistry also increases 1.82 and 1.54 times the chance of indicate sealing of caries lesions for ICDAS 4 (inner half of the dentin) and ICDAS 6, respectively. Less years of graduation and work in private clinic were factors that increased 1.64 and 2.06 times the chance, respectively, of recommending partial caries removal (PCR) for ICDAS 4 (outer half of dentin). The academic source of information also increased 2.75 and 3.65 times the chance for PCR indication for ICDAS 4 (inner half of the dentin) and ICDAS 6, respectively. The present study showed that Brazilian dentists had average to good knowledge related to sealing of caries lesions, and they had adopted minimally invasive procedures for managing dentin caries lesions in primary molars, as the caries lesion sealing and the partial caries removal.