KNOWLEDGE OF GENERAL DENTAL PRACTITIONERS, POSTGRADUATE RESIDENTS, AND SPECIALISTS FROM VARIOUS DENTAL SPECIALTIES TOWARDS PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY IN PAKISTAN

Objective: To find out the Knowledge of general dental practitioners and Specialists from various dental specialties towards pediatric dental care in Pakistan. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire study was conducted. The pre-validated questionnaire was distributed among different dentists in Pakistan and responses were evaluated using SPSS 25. Results: Out of the 372 participants, there were 207 general dentists, 83 operative dentists, 17 prosthodontists, 21 orthodontists and 44 oral surgeons. A greater proportion of operative dentists knew about the recommended medicament for pulpotomy (n = 30, 36.1%; p = 0.022) and the material of choice for restoring multi-surface lesions (n = 29, 34.1%; p < 0.001), as compared to other dentists. However, the number is still low. A greater proportion of orthodontists/prosthodon-tists and oral surgeons knew about the correct pain control method for mandibular endodontics (n = 46, 56.1%; p = 0.007). A total of 331 (89.0%) dentists did not know the material of choice for restoring one surface lesions. Conclusion: A very low frequency of dentists had knowledge about the different basic practices of pediatric dentistry. The knowledge of dentists was highly lacking. Pediatric dentistry education at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels should be incorporated.