Treatment preferences of deep carious lesions in mature teeth: Questionnaire study among dentists in Northern Norway.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate preferred treatment methods of deep carious lesions in mature permanent teeth among dentists in Northern Norway. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The survey included all 437 general dental practitioners in Northern Norway working in the private or the public dental health service. The participants received an invitation with a radiograph and a clinical picture of a deep carious lesion in a mature permanent tooth and a questionnaire asking about demographic characteristics and their preferred treatment methods related to different clinical deep caries diagnoses. RESULTS: The response rate was 56%. There was an over-representation of publicly employed dentists among the respondents; otherwise no systematic bias related to non-responders was detected. In the absence of carious exposure and no symptoms, total caries excavation was the preferred treatment method (49%) followed by stepwise excavation (45%). In cases of deep caries and no exposure with symptoms, the preferences were equally distributed between root canal treatment (39%) and stepwise excavation (38%). In the presence of carious exposure but no symptoms, the preferred treatment method was direct pulp capping (51%) and in carious exposure with symptoms root canal treatment was the preferred treatment method (91%). CONCLUSIONS: There is no uniform treatment method of deep carious lesions among dentists in Northern Norway.