Survey of Dental Materials Used by Dentists for Indirect Restorations in Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use and selection of materials for indirect restorations by dentists in Saudi Arabia. A structured 18-item questionnaire was designed and sent via email to all dentists with active memberships in the Saudi Dental Society. A total of 373 dentists (20.2%) out of the 1,846 contacted answered the questionnaire. The majority of the responding dentists (81.5%) prefer to use porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns for posterior teeth, while 77.5% use all-ceramic crowns for anterior teeth. Only 29.8% reported using computer aided design/computer-assisted manufacture in their practice. There was inconsistency among dentists in material selection, and this was affected by the dentist's gender, years of experience, specialty, and service sector.