FACTORS AFFECTING CHOICE OF RESTORATIVE MATERIALS AND AWARENESS OF MINAMATA CONVENTION AMONG DENTAL PRACTITIONERS IN A TERTIARY INSTITUTION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

There are many restorative materials in use today, each with its unique selling points. They include products like dental amalgam, composite resin, glass ionomer cement and compomer. They can be used in the treatment of dental caries in posterior teeth.  However, dental amalgam has generated the most controversy because of its content of mercury.

Objective: To determine the attitudes and practices towards the treatment of dental caries as well as the level of awareness of the Minamata declaration among restorative dentists and dental students in a tertiary dental institution in Lagos, Nigeria.

Method: A structured questionnaire was administered to all the dentists and students involved in restorative treatments. The questionnaire assessed the factors that determined the choice of materials among the respondents. The respondents were divided into three categories based on professional experience to group 1 comprising students and house officers, group 2 comprising medical officers and registrars and group 3 comprised of senior registrars and consultants.

The respondents were aged between 23 and 60 years and comprised 20 males and 25 females. .Results: Dental amalgam (100%), composite resin (97.8%) and glass ionomer cement (95.6%) were the materials the respondents were most conversant with as well as being the most frequently placed (80%, 71.1%, and 84.4% respectively). Significantly however, compomer was mostly used by group 1 respondents (p=0.009). The commonest factors affecting choice of restorative materials were availability of restorative material (93.3%), age of patient (82.2%), this was statistically significant (p=0.013), tooth type (88.9%), cost of restoration (86.7%), type of tooth defect (88.9%) and patient’s preference (73.3%). Level of awareness was highest among Group 3 respondents and least among Group 2 respondents (p = 0.045). Conclusion: While majority of the respondents still prefer and place amalgam, the steps to making a choice of restorative material are intricate. Again, almost half of the study respondents were unaware of the Minamata Convention while awareness of the Convention was highest among the most experienced professional category