Preservation of sound primary tooth until eruption of the permanent successors is essential in development of normal occlusion and maintaining the arch form integrity. The study purpose was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding treating deep carious primary teeth among general dental practitioners and compared them with those of pediatric dentists in Saudi Arabia.
A non-experimental, descriptive, cross sectional design was used. The study participants (170) were general dental practitioners (85) and pediatric dental practitioners (85) working in Saudi Arabia. Inclusion criteria were; enrolled in dental work in Saudi Arabia, between the ages of 26- 60 years old, had at least one-year work experience, treating children, and could read and understand English.
A validated self-designed-structured questionnaire in English language was used as an instrument for data collection. Most participants were females (68%). Highly significant differences were found between general dental practitioners and pediatric dentists in all of three aspect of the survey. This study concluded that the knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding treating deep carious lesion in primary teeth by general dental practitioners are inadequate and differ from pediatric dentists.