Knowledge and Attitude of Dentists toward Silver Diamine Fluoride in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Introduction Dental caries is managed by two approaches: prevention which focuses on inhibiting the caries progression, and the traditional approach which is treating caries by drilling and filling. Logically, the first approach is more effective. One of the recently marketed preventive methods for preventing and inhibiting the progression of dental caries is silver diamine fluoride (SDF), which is proven to be minimally invasive and cost-effective, SDF has proven to have a significant success rate in caries prevention, especially in the early childhood caries. Objective The study aims to evaluate general practitioners’ SDF clinical experience, knowledge, professional behavior, and attitudes. Materials and methods The study was a cross-sectional study and we utilized a random sampling of Saudi general dental practitioners from different places in the Hail region, KSA. The study was conducted using papered interview and an online questionnaire followed by educating the dentists about SDF. Results Dentists were asked about SDF, 62.7% answered that they heard about SDF topical application, but the dentists who answered all questions correctly are only 14.89% with no statistically significant difference among gender, age, or sector. Conclusion This study had several limitations. It only included the dental GPA in the Hail region, Saudi Arabia. As is the case with all surveys, only a limited number of questions could be asked. Thus, the information to be obtained is also limited. Future research should therefore include other questions to clarify other aspects which we could not explore in this research. How to cite this article Alshammari AF, Alenzi RH, Alanezi AA, et al. Knowledge and Attitude of Dentists toward Silver Diamine Fluoride in Saudi Arabia. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2021;14(5):662–665.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices towards Silver Diamine Fluoride among Dentists in Vietnam

“…The previous study investigating the SDF teaching landscape in dental schools across Southeast Asia further corroborates this finding [ 15 ]. Also, a study in Saudi Arabia evaluating general practitioners’ SDF clinical experience, knowledge, professional behavior, and attitudes found that only 63% of the participating dentists had heard of SDF, and there was a lack of knowledge even among the dentists who knew SDF, which also align with this study and indicates the importance of SDF education for the dental professionals [ 19 ].…”