Strategies of Carious Tissue Removal in Deep Carious Lesions among Dentists in Iraq: Online Based Survey Study

Abstract

The aim was to find out the preferences of dentists in Iraq regarding strategies of carious tissue removal
in management of deep carious lesions (CR) in asymptomatic teeth and how demographics (sex, years of
experience, qualification, specialty, place of work) influences these preferences. An online questionnaire
of two months duration was constructed and distributed randomly via social media (Facebook). The
questionnaire’ questions investigated the demographics, CR (included non-selective removal to hard dentine
(NS), stepwise (SW) and selective (SE) removal). 238 dentists participated in the study, 164 (69%), 56
(23.5%) and 18 (7.5%) of respondents prefer NS, SW and SEremoval, respectively. Significantly both GDP
and males prefer NS more than Endodontists and females (P<0.05), Percent of respondents work in private
clinics who perform non-selective removal (53.6%) significantly lower than those who work in hospitals
(73.6%) (p<0.01). less invasive CR significantly associated with being an endodontist or female or work in
a private clinic (OR=2.02, CI 95% 1.02-4.0), (OR=2.04, CI 95% 1.12-3.7) and (OR=2.1, CI 95% 1.0-4.0),
respectively. In conclusion Iraqi GDPs prefer invasive strategy of carious tissue removal in management of
deep carious lesions. Specialty, place of work and sex of respondents affected these choices significantly