Aim: To explore and assess the level of knowledge, use and opinion of general dental practitioners in Saudi Arabia regarding the use of the Hall technique (HT) for the management of carious primary molars in children. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study utilizing a 13-item questionnaire divided into two parts was performed. The data collected entered a Microsoft excel spreadsheet. Descriptive statistics analyzing the responses were calculated. Results and discussion: A total of 252 GDPs completed the survey, of which 132 (52.4%) male and 120 (47.6%) female respondents. More than half of the respondents (151, 59%) reported that they knew about HT. Most of them (168, 66.7%) reported that they had never used it, while one third of them (84, 33.3%) reported to have used it. The lack of knowledge or training was reported by more than half of the respondents (155, 61.5%) as the main barrier for using HT. Conclusions: HT was known by more than half of the general dental practitioners, but not widely used. Using HT could increase General Dental Practitioners (GDPs)’ confidence in treating children and motivate them to accept a dental treatment. The results of the study suggest the need to reinforce the use of HT in undergraduate education, as a good treatment modality to manage caries in children, based on the current evidence-based data.
Keywords:- caries
- general dental practitioners
- Hall technique