Paediatricians' and Primary Care Physicians' Ability to Assess Caries Risk in Singaporean Children Aged 2 Years and Below

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Abstract
Background: It is desirable for doctors to conduct caries risk assessment (CRA) and evaluate the child's need for dental referral as medical visits in the first year of life surpass dental visits. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate physicians' proficiencies in performing CRA and risk‐based dental referrals. Design: The study involved a self‐administered questionnaire that elicited participants' demographics and perceptions regarding oral health‐related activities as well as responses to questions pertaining to CRA and referral recommendations via four clinical vignettes (vignettes 1 and 3: low caries risk, vignettes 2 and 4: moderate/high caries risk) of children aged ≤ 2 years. Results: Participants performed better at CRA than for referral recommendation ( p < 0.001). Including a clinical photograph (vignettes 3 and 4) did not improve the accuracy of CRA responses and instead significantly reduced the correct CRA responses for vignette 3 (before: 90.5%, after: 81.7%, p = 0.033). Though for vignette 3, there was an increase in participants making the recommendation to refer for dental evaluation (before: 34%, after: 86%) after being shown the clinical photograph. Conclusion: Doctors were proficient at determining caries risk but less sure when deciding if a dental referral was required.

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