The views and experiences of general dental practitioners (GDP’s) in West Yorkshire who used the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) in research

Abstract

ObjectiveTo explore, through face to face interviews with a selection of General Dental Practitioners (GDPs), their views and experiences of having used the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) within primary care research studies for recording caries.MethodsThis qualitative study involved one on one interviews with eight GDP’s who had previously used ICDAS on patients in their dental practices as part of a research study. The participants were selected from among those who had taken part in two clinical studies in the UK using convenient, but purposive sampling. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed; the data analysis was conducted by thematic analysis.ResultsGDP’s indicated their beliefs that ICDAS had an important role in caries prevention but reported four main barriers while using the full (6 caries stages) ICDAS coding system in their practices: lack of simplicity of coding, financial implications and time consumption (in both training and use of ICDAS) and inadequate undergraduate training. An overarching theme identified from the GDPS was the willingness to offer potential solutions to their barriers which might improve the utilisation of the system in primary care.ConclusionThe GDPs experienced common obstacles in using ICDAS in the primary care setting, many of which have relatively straight-forward solutions which they put forward themselves such as: incentivisation, undergraduate-level training in ICDAS for both dentists and nurses and computerized data entry. Further qualitative and quantitative research is needed on how to facilitate the utilisation of the system in dental practice. It is also recommended to explore the influences of wider agencies on influencing primary dental care professionals’ caries management, including appropriate recording of diagnosis and risk assessment.

Comparing the effectiveness of competition as a method of reminding primary oral health care dentists to record diagnoses with two alternative methods used to enhance the recording of diagnoses in primary health care

“…The present results may, however, reflect the general culture of the dental discipline [ 20 ]. Furthermore, the reward system of dentists has not generally been based on recording activity but on other measures than recording diagnoses and this may modify the actions of dentists [ 19 , 21 ]. Fortunately, the situation is changing.…”

Perceptions on using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) among Malaysian private dentists: a qualitative study

“…After a thorough evaluation of the existing literature [11,15,16], a topic guide was created for this study, which was then content validated by a dental public health specialist. Suitable candidates were emailed participant information sheets and requested to contact the research team if they were interested in participating in the study.…”

“…Previously published data on ICDAS has mostly centred on establishing the index's reliability, reproducibility, validity, and accuracy [9,10]. In a research of West Yorkshire dentists' perspectives and experiences [11], it was discovered that dentists experienced various hurdles in applying it, including a lack of simplicity, financial constraints, and time limitations. Nevertheless, study exploring the barriers faced by clinicians and researchers in using the ICDAS index is still scarce in the literature.…”

Convolution Neural Networks and Targeted Fluorescent Nanoparticles to Detect and ICDAS Score Caries

“…Although few studies exist comparing these systems to gold standards for lesion activity, one study found an accuracy of 52% for dentists determining lesion activity using IC-DAS [Cotta et al, 2015]. Moreover, general practitioners find these systems too complicated, time consuming, and costly to use in practice and thus their utilization is low [Khattak et al, 2019]. In real-world practices, identification of severity, particularly early lesions, and lesion activity is likely worse than being reported in the literature with these systems.…”