ArticleOral health & preventive dentistry2025
Diagnosis to Follow-Up: Practice Variability and Evidence-Based Gaps In Vital Pulp Therapy Among Saudi Dentists.
Article in Oral health & preventive dentistry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeVital pulp therapy (VPT) is a minimally invasive approach aimed at preserving pulp vitality in cases of caries or trauma. Despite advancements in diagnostic tools and bioactive materials, clinical practices vary significantly. This study explored the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative practices of dental professionals in Saudi Arabia regarding VPT, with a focus on diagnostic tools, rubber dam isolation, and material selection. The aim was to identify practice variability and evidence-based gaps and propose strategies to standardise care. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 302 dental professionals using a validated online questionnaire. Data collection spanned December 2024 to early March 2025. Descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, including the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests, were employed to compare practices across groups, while binary logistic regression identified predictors of good knowledge (≥70%). A P value 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
resultsPreoperative practices highlighted frequent use of pulp sensibility testing (79.1%) and periapical radiographs (50%), with cold testing as the preferred method (52.6%). However, advanced tools like CBCT were underutilised. Intraoperatively, 67.2% consistently used rubber dam isolation, while calcium hydroxide (22.5%) was the most commonly used pulp capping material, despite increasing adoption of mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) and biodentine. Postoperatively, 46% adhered to a 3-6 month follow-up interval, relying on cold testing and percussion for assessment. Logistic regression revealed postgraduate education, specialisation, and frequency of VPT procedures as significant predictors of evidence-based practices.
conclusionThe findings highlight significant variability in VPT practices among dental professionals in Saudi Arabia, emphasising the need for targeted training programmes and standardised guidelines to bridge evidence-based gaps, improve clinical consistency, and optimise patient outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.