Attitudes and use of rubber dam by Irish general dental practitioners

Abstract

Whilst rubber dam is used more frequently for root canal treatment than operative treatment, its use is limited. This presents quality issues, as well as medico-legal and safety concerns for both the profession and patients.

A Survey on Usage of Rubber Dam during Composite Restorative Procedures by General and Specialist Dental Practitioners in Saudi Arabia

“…Previous studies have reported under-usage of RD, [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] a similar finding to this study. RD has been available since 1864 and is considered an ideal device for tooth isolation in restorative dentistry.…”

“…They use cotton rolls for isolation in either anterior teeth (77.5%), or posterior teeth (68.8%). This finding suggests a high level of underutilization of RD by GP in Saudi Arabia, when compared to the findings of previous studies, where 45% of American GP never used a RD for anterior composites and 39% never used RD for posterior composites; 4 59% of Irish GP never used RD when placing anterior composite restorations and 52% never used a RD for posterior composite restorations 10 and 63% of British GP never used RD for any restoration. 9 The findings of the present study reveal disappointing results which indicate that majority of GP in this country who have been trained in using RD continue to ignore RD for composite restorative procedures.…”

Rubber dam application in endodontic practice: an update on critical educational and ethical dilemmas

“…3,5,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Although surveys reported that almost all undergraduate students expected to use the RD in endodontics post-qualification, 3,19 RD use tends to decrease dramatically after graduation ( Table 1). The number of years of professional activity after graduation may not contribute significantly to the attitude of the GDPs towards the application of RD.…”

Evaluation of a community-based clinical teaching programme by current and former student dental therapists and dental hygienists: a pilot investigation

“…32 On the other hand, the response rate for this survey was 59%, leading to a possible claim of responder bias, ie those who are more enthusiastic about this subject chose to respond. 33 The response rate noted in this study (59%) was slightly less than the suggested acceptable response rate to questionnaires (64%), 34 but greater than those from other recentlypublished studies on diverse topics such as dental nurse education (53%), 35 rubber dam usage (50%) 27 and local anaesthetic teaching programmes (18%). 36 In any case, the purpose of this present study was to present pilot data and further investigation of the relevance of community-based clinical teaching to the educational and professional development of student dental therapists and dental hygienists along with the development of dental teams is indicated, possibly via formalised focus group methodologies.…”

“…This latter point has received recent emphasis where access to care for certain endodontic and prosthodontic treatments within general dental practice has been shown to be problematic. [26][27][28] However, notwithstanding the clear advantages of the dental team, primarycare based studies have highlighted that the 'team approach' is under-utilised within UK practices. 5,9 A recent study carried out in Wales illustrated that almost 60% of clinical time was expended by dentists on treatments that fell within the scope of practice of, and could have been delegated to, dental therapists and dental in independent practice (n = 21, 70%).…”