Table 1.

Questions used to assess the methods used by DPBRN dentists to diagnose dental caries.

Instructions. These questions have to do with methods that you may use to diagnose dental caries. Please circle the one number that best corresponds to your answer. Patients can vary substantially from one practice to the next, but we are interested in the patients in YOUR practice.

When you examine patients to determine if they have a caries lesion on a proximal (mesial or distal) surface, on a posterior tooth, on what percent of these patients do you use radiographs to help diagnose the lesion? When you examine patients to determine if they have a caries lesion on the occlusal surface, on what percent of these patients do you use radiographs to help diagnose the lesion? When you examine patients to determine if they have a primary occlusal caries lesion, on what percent of these patients do you use a dental explorer to help diagnose the lesion? When you examine patients to determine if they have a caries lesion at the margin of an existing restoration (recurrent/secondary caries) on what percent of these patients do you use a dental explorer to help diagnose the lesion? When you examine patients to determine if they have a primary caries lesion on the occlusal surface, on what percent of these patients do you use laser fluorescence (for example, Diagnodent®)? When you examine patients to determine if they have a primary caries lesion, on what percent of these patients do you use air-drying to help diagnose the lesion?** When you examine patients to determine if they have a caries lesion on a proximal (mesial or distal) surface of an anterior tooth, on what percent of these patients do you use fiber optic transillumination to help diagnose the lesion? When you examine patients to determine if they have a caries lesion, on what percent of these patients do you use some sort of magnification to help diagnose the lesion?

^**Respondents who reported using air-drying were also asked: Approximately how long do you dry the tooth surface? The response choices were: 1-2 seconds, 3-4 seconds, 5 seconds, more than 5 seconds Participants had the following answering choices: 1 – Never or 0% 2 – 1 to 24% 3 – 25 to 49% 4 – 50 to 74% 5 – 75 to 99% 6 – Every time or 100%

Note: The percentages for each method used were recoded to the categories' median to maintain the interval nature of the data so that parametric statistics could be used: 0 percent=0, 1-24 percent=12.5, 25-49 percent=37, 50-74 percent=62, 75-99 percent=87, 100 percent=100.