This study assessed the awareness, knowledge and practice of evidence‐based dentistry (EBD) amongst dentists working in the public sector in Kuwait. Of the 150 randomly selected dentists from all five health districts in Kuwait who had originally been approached, 120 participated by completing a pre‐tested, self‐administered questionnaire (80% response rate). Whereas 60.9% of the group stated that they practice EBD most of the time, fewer (40.8%) had a reasonable understanding of EBD based upon tested knowledge scores of EBD‐related topics. Clinical decisions appeared to be mostly based on the clinician’s own judgment (73.3%) rather than on evidence‐based sources such as PubMed (28.3%) or the Cochrane Library (6.7%). A number of within‐group differences were noted, with women (P < 0.05), those working in a particular district (P < 0.05), those with <10 years’ experience (P = 0.05), those whose first dental qualification had been obtained in Kuwait (P < 0.05), and those who had had any EBD training (P < 0.05) showing greater knowledge of EBD. Training in EBD was felt necessary by a majority of the group, and this may be facilitated if dental centres have access to evidence‐based sources to remove some of the possible barriers to implementation of EBD.
Objective To investigate the knowledge, attitude, and possible barriers to fluoride application among oral health-care providers in Kuwait. Methods A validated self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 291 dentists. The questionnaire included four categories: dentists' characteristics, knowledge of and attitude towards fluoride application, factors influencing decision-making on prescription of fluoride, and the clinician's perception of own knowledge. Means, group differences, and logistic regression were calculated. Results 262 completed the questionnaire (response rate of 90%). Half of the participants (49%) reported that water fluoridation is the best method for caries prevention in children. Majority of the participants (80%) acknowledged that topical fluoride prevents dental caries, but only 40% frequently use it in their practices. Fear of overdose was a concern in 57% of the participants. About 31% believed that caries is a multifactorial disease and cannot be prevented. In addition, 32% of the dentists who thought caries is multifactorial and cannot be prevented stated that restorations take precedence over preventive therapy. Conclusion Despite the participants being in favor of topical fluoride application and believing in its effectiveness, certain barriers were apparent such as knowledge deficiencies, products labelling flaw, and lack of participation in effective continuing educational activities.
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