EVIDENCE BASED CLINICAL KNOWLEDGE IN DENTAL SEALANT UTILIZATION AMONG DENTISTS

Terry Auditorium

Objective. To determine dental sealant utilization rate and evidence based clinical knowledge pertaining to dental sealant placement among Florida's dentists Background. The most common childhood disease is dental caries. Roughly 90% of the caries lesions in children occur in pits and fissures of posterior teeth which can be prevented by sealants. Despite evidence of sealants' effectiveness in both primary and secondary prevention of dental caries, and the existence of evidence-based guidelines for sealant placement, the prevalence of dental sealants used among U.S. children is low Methods. For this cross-sectional study we used a 25-item pretested, self-administered questionnaire at the 2013 Florida National Dental Convention. Univariate, and bivariate statistics were run. Multivariate linear regression model predicting evidence based clinical knowledge on sealant placements was created Results. 163 dentists completed the survey. Majority of the respondents were males (63%), whites (73%), and non- Medicaid providers (78%). Majority (98%) reported to use sealant as a routine preventive measure. Clinical knowledge regarding teeth selection and sealant placement was low, with dentists answering on average only one question correctly, out of three possible knowledge questions. Linear regression model showed males (p=0.001), and those accepting new Medicaid children (p=0.0045) had higher knowledge compared to their counterparts Conclusion. Though sealant utilization rate among Florida's dentists is high, the evidence based clinical knowledge about sealant placement is low Grants. This study was funded by the Nova Southeastern University Health Professions Division