Preventive Dentistry in Bosnian Private Dental Practices

The aim of this research was to investigate the private general dental practitioners' (GDPs) attitudes, practice and knowledge to primary preventive measures (professional topical fluoridation, oral hygiene instructions, dietary advice and fissure sealing) in treating patients in their practices. Specially designed questionnaire concerning GDP's attitudes, practice and knowledge of preventive dentistry related questions, was distributed to 57 private dental practices in Canton Sarajevo area, Bosnia and Herzegovina. There were 46 (80.7%) completed and returned questionnaires. All of the respondents claimed to have applied some sort of preventive measures in treating their patients, but only 26% of GDPs said they had used all of the recommended measures. The only preventive measure that all of GDPs reported using was giving oral hygiene advice/instruction; 83% of dentists applied topical fluoride, 40.4 % of which admitted to practicing it rarely. Most GDPs give diet counseling to patients regularly while some 15% of them don't practice this at all. Seventy two per cent of dentists used fissure sealants. Surveyed dentists were familiar with basic principles of preventive dentistry, but they did not give enough importance to it in overall treatment of patients. The only preventive measure delivered by all general dental practitioners was oral health advice/instructions, usually given verbally in a form of mini-lectures. Professional topical fluoridation was performed generally on children, mostly on routine basis in dental practices. The most often given dietary advice was about decreasing total intake of sugary foods and drinks.