As available, remaining clinic time is utilized to provide primary dental care for Hospital employees and their dependents. The mission is accomplished by engaging in clinical practice, teaching, research, continuing education, medical outreach, and by providing consultative service to other hospital departments and outside institutions. The list of hospitals, centers, and clinics that provide dental services in Riyadh city was obtained from the Ministry of Health.
Studies have noted that FOTI detects more occlusal and interproximal caries than other methods , and it is recommended as an adjunct detection tool that should be included in daily practice . Despite the limitations of this study, it can be concluded that there is some knowledge and little usage of advanced caries diagnostic methods among both dental practitioners and dental students in Riyadh. افضل دكتور اسنان في السعودية Although there seems to be an acceptable awareness and practice of caries risk assessment methods in the planning of restorative treatment, additional education regarding advanced methods of caries diagnosis is needed for practitioners and students. Moreover, conventional methods such as using sharp explorers are still commonly used, despite evidence that they are harmful to patients.



The dentists’ profiles of the current research, years of experience, and specialty had no reflection on perception of the quality of education outcomes. However, graduates of non-Saudi dental schools perceived their education outcome as more positive, compared to graduates of Saudi dental schools. These findings pinpoint the deficiency in the Saudi dental education and on-the-job training opportunities. The constructive finding in the current study is that dentists expressed their consensus about the need for more education and their willingness to attain more education and training in the SHCNs field.
These efforts should be expanded to include a national strategy to disseminate these curricula to all Saudi medical and dental schools. Increasing online portals for dentistry and medical healthcare will aid the overall market. Rising number of enrollments in dentistry institutions coupled with increasing concern for good looks, white teeth and other dentistry services will contribute to overall market growth in Saudi Arabia dental care service market in upcoming years. Moreover, studies have shown that dentists’ level of knowledge in the diagnosis and management of chronic, non-dental OFP was insufficient . General dentists might be unaware of the continuous update of TMD taxonomies including the Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD) diagnostic system that was developed by the International Network for Orofacial Pain and Related Disorders Methodology .
The DMF/S is composed of a "D" component for decayed, "M" component for missing, and "F" component for filled teeth surfaces. The examinations were conducted using a portable dental chair, disposal mirrors, explorers (kit No.99113), gauzes, and a light source. The WHO criteria were followed for the diagnosis of dental caries in the 140 surfaces of the 28 permanent teeth .

The study included Saudi dental practitioners working in Riyadh public hospitals. Whereas non-Saudi dental practitioners, dental students, and Saudi dental practitioners who work only in the private sector, or other cities in Saudi Arabia were excluded. Therefore, this study aimed to assess knowledge on and attitude toward silver diamine fluoride among Saudi dental practitioners in Riyadh public hospitals. Our results can help dental practitioners to understand their responsibility of using social media within their dental practice, which will be reflected in patients’ expectations and knowledge. The findings of this study might help Saudi Commission for Health Specialties to organize workshops to harmonize the use of social media within the dental practice to avoid any ethical violations of their use among dental practitioners in Saudi Arabia.
Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. "Open access journals are probably one of the most important contributions to promote and diffuse science worldwide." "Open access journals are very useful for all scientists as they can have quick information in the different fields of science."

Firstly, the most important limitation lies in the fact that “I don’t know” was not included as an option in the original version of the questionnaire, which might contribute to the high percentage of neutral responses among participants. Secondly, SDF is only recently approved in Saudi Arabia, thus a lack of long exposure and clinical experience of SDF might affect dentists’ decisions and preferences regarding such treatment. In addition, the scope of this study was confined to dental practitioners from governmental sectors only, which may not reflect those of other sectors in Saudi Arabia. In general, non-Saudis, general practitioners and dentists practicing in private clinics are significantly using more social media during their practice. The majority of dental practitioners indicated that social media has improved their dental practice and become an indicator of successful practice. Investigators of the current research compared the mean score of education outcome components according to the “Satisfaction with under and Postgraduate Dental Education Regarding Patients with SHCNs” subsection of the questionnaire.
Therefore, we aimed to assess the knowledge and use of different methods to detect dental caries and to perform caries risk assessments among dental students and practitioners in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We invited all newly graduated dentists who graduated in 2018 from all dental schools in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to participate in the study. The participants were at the internship program which is the formal one-year paid comprehensive general dentistry experience. The questionnaire was distributed to the dentists in paper format during the monthly meeting of interns at each dental school in the Riyadh region.