An investigation into dentists' perceptions of barriers to providing care of dental trauma to permanent maxillary incisors in children in Victoria, Australia.

BACKGROUND: Perceived barriers in the treatment of dental trauma may influence the optimum management of dental trauma. Any hesitation that dentists might have in managing dental trauma is important to investigate. The aim of this study was to investigate dentists' perceptions of barriers to providing care of dental trauma to permanent maxillary incisors in children.

METHODS: A self-completion questionnaire survey containing six questions on demographic data and 15 questions relating to barriers to treating dental trauma was mailed to 693 dentists in Victoria, Australia.

RESULTS: The response rate achieved was 61 per cent. Of the respondents, 90 per cent had no hesitation in treating dental injuries and 80 per cent of these frequently agreed that dentists should treat all dental trauma. Approximately half the dentists (51.5 per cent) frequently found uncooperative children to be the main barrier to providing care.

CONCLUSION: The overall consensus from the present study was that treating dental trauma is not unappealing for dentists in general practice.