# Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices About the Use of Silver Diamine Fluoride Among Dentists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

## TL;DR

This study explores how well dentists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia know and use silver diamine fluoride, finding that pediatric dentists are more knowledgeable and satisfied with it.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Saudi dentists regarding silver diamine fluoride.

## Key findings

- Pediatric dentists had significantly higher knowledge and practice scores for silver diamine fluoride compared to other specialties.
- Over 50% of dentists believed they were very informed about silver diamine fluoride, but overall knowledge and practice scores were below average.
- Years of experience and workplace did not significantly affect knowledge or practice levels of silver diamine fluoride.

## Abstract

Introduction

Dental caries is a worldwide disease affecting children and older populations. There are multiple interventions to treat dental caries that could be sometimes hard to deliver, due to the general status of patients such as insufficient cooperation or medically compromising conditions. Therefore, another alternative to control dental caries is being used and has been recently introduced and approved by the Saudi FDA which is silver diamine fluoride (SDF).

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices about the use of SDF among dentists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Materials and methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted using pretested, an online digitally designed questionnaire sent to 500 Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS) registered dentists working in the following specialties: general practitioners, interns, restorative, family, pediatric, and public health dentists who are working in public and private hospitals and clinics. One-way ANOVA was used to determine the comparison of participants’ knowledge and Practice with three variables (participants’ specialty, place of work, and years of experience), while Chi-square was used for the comparison of respondent’s attitudes about the use of SDF and the above same variables.

Result

A total of 265 responses were received (response rate is 53%). The majority of the respondents were general practitioners and interns 144 (54.3%). Over 50% of dentists believed that they were very informed about SDF. The mean score of knowledge and practices of SDF of participants was found below average 49.13 (19.81) and 43 (26.12), respectively. Correlation of the mean score knowledge and practicing SDF with the type of specialty showed that pediatric dentists had statically significant (P<0.05) higher mean of knowledge 66.94 (SD=17.64) and practicing of SDF 61.93 (22.12) as compared to other specialties, while no statistically significant differences were found among the groups in the overall knowledge and practices based on years of experience and workplace. Attitudes were correlated with the three above variables (specialty, years of experience, and place of work) and showed that pediatric dentists had the highest satisfaction with the results of SDF (85.3%) and were more willing to recommend using it to others (91.2%) as compared to the other groups(P<0.05). No statistically significant differences were found with respect to the later variables.

Conclusion

The findings of this study showed that irrespective of the positive attitude of participants towards SDF, pediatric dentists were found to have higher knowledge and use SDF more than other dentists in different specialties. Furthermore, they showed higher satisfaction with its use. Years of experience and workplace had no effect on the level of knowledge or practice among participants.