Article Document Academic Article Information Content Entity Continuant Continuant Journal Article Entity Entity Generically Dependent Continuant 2025-05-07T23:48:55 RDF description of Methods dentists use to diagnose primary caries lesions prior to restorative treatment: findings from The Dental PBRN - http://repository.healthpartners.com/individual/document-rn781 public Dentistry Methods dentists use to diagnose primary caries lesions prior to restorative treatment: findings from The Dental PBRN document-rn781 2 Questionnaires Research Methods Dental Caries <p>OBJECTIVE: To (1) quantify the diagnostic techniques used by Dental Practice-Based Research Network (DPBRN) dentists before they decide to treat primary caries lesions surgically and (2) examine whether certain dentist, practice, and patient characteristics are associated with their use. METHODS: A total of 228 DPBRN dentists recorded information on 5,676 consecutive restorations inserted due to primary caries lesions on 3,751 patients. Practitioner-investigators placed a mean of 24.9 (SD = 12.4) restorations. Lesions were categorized as posterior proximal, anterior proximal, posterior occiusal, posterior smooth, or anterior smooth. Techniques used to diagnose the lesion were categorized as clinical assessment, radiographs, and/or optical. Statistical analysis utilized generalized mixed-model ANOVA to account for the hierarchical structure of the data. RESULTS: By lesion category, the diagnostic technique combinations used most frequently were clinical assessment plus radiographs for posterior proximal (47%), clinical assessment for anterior proximal (51%), clinical assessment for posterior occlusal (46%), clinical assessment for posterior smooth (77%), and clinical assessment for anterior smooth (80%). Diagnostic technique was significantly associated with lesion category after adjusting for clustering in dentists (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: These results--obtained during actual clinical procedures rather than from questionnaire-based hypothetical scenarios--quantified the diagnostic techniques most commonly used during the actual delivery of routine restorative care. Diagnostic technique varied by lesion category and with certain practice and patient characteristics.<p> 12085 132 Cross-Sectional Studies 18750 2022-02-21T22:48:57.408-06:00 Texas Dental Journal Dentist's Practice Patterns