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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Dent. Med
Sec. Systems Integration
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fdmed.2024.1466962
This article is part of the Research Topic Dental Education View all 6 articles

An Updated Look at The Use of Silver Diamine Fluoride in U.S. Dental Schools' Predoctoral Curriculum -A Survey

Provisionally accepted
Benas Jakubauskas Benas Jakubauskas 1Sarah Pagni Sarah Pagni 2Andrea Ferreira Zandona Andrea Ferreira Zandona 3*
  • 1 Rollins Family Dental, Round Lake Beach, United States
  • 2 School of Dental Medicine, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
  • 3 College of Dentistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This survey aimed to update Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF) use/teaching in U.S. predoctoral dental education programs in comparison to a 2016 survey, considering the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey via email was sent to all accredited U.S. predoctoral dental education programs (n=68) in January 2022. A total of 39 schools (57% response rate) responded to the survey, and all 39 of them reported that SDF was now part of their curriculum, significantly different (p<0.001) from 2016 (68% of schools). Significant changes (p<0.001) were reported in the survey responses from 2016 to 2022, particularly in how SDF was being taught (97 % teaching didactically and clinically versus 48% in 2016), but were not necessarily a response to the COVID pandemic. Schools report teaching more indications for the use of SDF and using more specific protocols with more schools teaching arresting caries in permanent teeth (97% versus 78% in 2016). Since 2016, the use and teaching of SDF have been increasingly adopted across U.S. dental schools, though there remains room for improvement in terms of consistent implementation, specific clinical protocols, and comprehensive training.

    Keywords: Cariology, Dental Caries, Dental curriculum, dental education, Silver diamine fluoride

    Received: 18 Jul 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Jakubauskas, Pagni and Zandona. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Andrea Ferreira Zandona, College of Dentistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.