title: Treatment preferences of deep carious lesions in mature teeth: Questionnaire study among dentists in Northern Norway.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate preferred treatment methods of deep carious lesions in mature permanent teeth among dentists in Northern Norway.
  
  
  METHODS
  The survey included all 437 general dental practitioners in Northern Norway working in the private or the public dental health service. The participants received an invitation with a radiograph and a clinical picture of a deep carious lesion in a mature permanent tooth and a questionnaire asking about demographic characteristics and their preferred treatment methods related to different clinical deep caries diagnoses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate was 56%. There was an over-representation of publicly employed dentists among the respondents; otherwise no systematic bias related to non-responders was detected. In the absence of carious exposure and no symptoms, total caries excavation was the preferred treatment method (49%) followed by stepwise excavation (45%). In cases of deep caries and no exposure with symptoms, the preferences were equally distributed between root canal treatment (39%) and stepwise excavation (38%). In the presence of carious exposure but no symptoms, the preferred treatment method was direct pulp capping (51%) and in carious exposure with symptoms root canal treatment was the preferred treatment method (91%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is no uniform treatment method of deep carious lesions among dentists in Northern Norway.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Dentistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø , Tromsø , Norway.
authors.forename: Lina
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stangvaltaite
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kundzina
authors.forename: Harald M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Eriksen
authors.forename: Eero
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kerosuo
mesh_terms: D003731:Dental Caries / Q000628:therapy*; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists'; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires