Knowledge and opinions of French dental students related to caries risk assessment and dental sealants (preventive and therapeutic)

Justine Le Clerc (1) , Marie-Agnès Gasqui (2) , Laurent Laforest (3) , Maxime Beaurain , Romain Ceinos (4, 5) , Florence Chemla (6) , Valérie Chevalier (7) , Pierre Colon (2) , Florence Fioretti (8) , Alexis Gevrey , Olivia Kérourédan (9, 10, 11) , Delphine Maret (12) , Caroline Mocquot (13, 2) , Canan Özcan (14) , Bruno Pelissier , Fabienne Pérez (15) , Elodie Terrer (16) , Yann-Loïg Turpin , Reza Arbab-Chirani (17, 18) , Dominique Seux (2) , Sophie Doméjean (19, 20)

1 ISCR - Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes
2 LMI - Laboratoire des Multimatériaux et Interfaces
3 UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1
4 CHU Nice - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice
5 ADES - Anthropologie bio-culturelle, Droit, Ethique et Santé
6 IAU Île-de-France - Institut d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme de la Région d'Ile-de-France
7 IRDL - Institut de Recherche Dupuy de Lôme
8 Nutriments Lipidiques et Prévention des Maladies Métaboliques
9 UB - Université de Bordeaux
10 CHU Bordeaux [Bordeaux]
11 BIOTIS - Bioingénierie tissulaire
12 AMIS - Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse
13 UPCité - Université Paris Cité
14 URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne
15 CHU Nantes - Centre hospitalier universitaire de Nantes
16 MEPHI - Microbes évolution phylogénie et infections
17 ENIB - École Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Brest
18 LaTIM - Laboratoire de Traitement de l'Information Medicale
19 CROC - Centre de Recherche en Odontologie Clinique
20 CHU Clermont-Ferrand

Objectives - A national questionnaire study was performed to document knowledge and opinions of French dental students (FDSs) about minimal intervention (MI) in dentistry especially caries risk assessment (CRA) and dental sealants (DSs). Materials and methods - A questionnaire was administered to the fifth-year dental FDSs (n = 1370) from the 16 French dental schools. Descriptive and statistical analyses were performed. Results - The response rate was 84.5%. A large majority of respondents (87.8%) linked MI with minimally invasive dentistry and 77.4% considered MI as a concept based on prevention. About 80% stated they use CRA in clinical practice, mostly without any specific form. If 80.4% of the respondents would base their treatment plans on CRA, only 55.1% would regularly plan preventive regimens according to individual risk level. However, while 96.6% declared they perform preventive DSs, only 44.3% considered therapeutic sealants as a routine treatment. Although 75.1% of FDSs stated that they had sufficient learning and training related to CRA, 55.9% thought that they need further education about preventive and therapeutic DSs. Conclusion - Although FDSs seem to be aware of the importance of CRA and preventive strategies, this study shows the need to harmonize the teaching in cariology according to the latest European recommendations. Clinical relevance - A national questionnaire study showed variability towards knowledge and opinions of FDSs related to MI in cariology. This may impact care provisions in their future professional life showing the urgent need to harmonize the teaching of MI in cariology in France.

Keywords: Caries risk assessment; Dental sealants; Dental students; Minimal intervention dentistry; Questionnaire survey

Domains: Chemical Sciences

Justine Le Clerc, Marie-Agnès Gasqui, Laurent Laforest, Maxime Beaurain, Romain Ceinos, et al.. Knowledge and opinions of French dental students related to caries risk assessment and dental sealants (preventive and therapeutic). Odontology, 2021, 109 (1), pp.41-52. ⟨10.1007/s10266-020-00527-7⟩. ⟨hal-02862238⟩