Assessment of implementation of the caries management by risk assessment philosophy in a dental school

ObjectiveThis cross-sectional study assessed the implementation of documenting a baseline caries risk assessment (CRA) of patients seen by predoctoral dental students and its association with the presence of caries risk management (CRM) treatment. MethodsA convenience sample of 10,000 electronic axiUm patient records at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine was retrospectively assessed for the presence or absence of a completed CRA and CRM after IRB approval following predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The CRM variables (nutrition counseling, sealant, fluoride) were identified by procedure codes that were completed by the student. Associations were assessed via the chi-square test, Kruskal-Wallis test (with Dunn's test and the Bonferroni correction used in post-hoc tests) and Mann-Whitney U test. ResultsMost patients (70.5%) had a CRA completed. However, only 24.9% (out of the 7045 patients with a completed CRA) received CRM, while 22.9% of the 2,955 patients without a CRA received CRM. The difference between the groups with and without a completed CRA in terms of the percentage receiving CRM was not clinically significant. Significant associations were found between a completed CRA and in-house fluoride treatment (p = .034) and between a completed CRA and sealant treatment (p = .001). Patients with higher baseline CRA levels (i.e., greater risk) were more likely to have CRM (16.9% of the 785 patients at low risk, 21.1% of the 1282 patients at moderate risk, 26.3% of the 4347 patients at high risk, and 32.6% of the 631 patients at extreme risk). The association between these two variables was significant (p < .001). ConclusionThere is evidence that students were mostly compliant with completing a CRA for most patients; however, there is a deficiency in implementation of CRM approach to help support dental caries management, and there is still much room for improvement.