Published Paper Details:

Dental caries is a highly prevalent multifactorial disease that has been a major oral health concern for many centuries. Pre-carious lesion is the initial carious lesion on the enamel surface resulting from an imbalance between the processes of demineralization and remineralisation. The goal of modern dentistry is to manage pre-carious lesions non-invasively through remineralisation in an attempt to prevent disease progression. The success of such a management strategy depends upon the knowledge and attitude of dental practitioners in various locations and degree of specialization. As there was limited evidence available in literature about the familiarity regarding non-invasive management, a survey study was designed for evaluating the knowledge and attitude among dental practitioners of Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka, India. A self-administered questionnaire consisting of 15 questions drafted for the survey using both online and offline approach and data were analysed using descriptive statistics. A total of 751 questionnaires were collected with an overall response rate of 90%, which include 453 (73.3%) of female and 298 (26.7%) of male practitioners. Dental practitioners in Dakshina Kannada were aware of basic knowledge regarding pre-carious lesions (80%) but showed deficiencies in their attitude towards methods of caries detection and management (20%). Therefore, more efforts are required to educate and update the dental practitioners regarding pre-carious lesions from traditional methods to latest contemporary methods by utilizing different modes of non-invasive management techniques such as application of fluorides, casein phosphopeptide amorphous calcium phosphate and resin infiltration etc