WHITE TEETH FEVER: DENTIST PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDE IN RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

Objectives: The demand for white teeth is widespread among patients seeking aesthetic treatment; therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate dentist's preference in tooth shade recommendation for patients and dentist perception and attitude toward patient needs. Methods: Due to the greater anonymity of the web-based survey, which allowed higher self-disclosure of respondents, a web-based questionnaire of 24 close-ended questions, investigated dentist's preference in tooth shade recommendation, and dentist perception and attitude with patients' tooth shade preference were spread via social networks and emails to target dentists among Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Targeted dentists were specialists/consultants and postgraduate residents of Restorative Dentistry, Prosthodontics, or Advanced Education in General Dentistry and general practitioners working in academic hospitals, government hospitals, or private sector. Data were collected and analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences to produce descriptive and cross-tabulation statistics. Results: Among the 329 respondents, 94% of participants noticed an increased demand for lighter tooth color, and 61% tended to match patients' unrealistic tooth color requests (P<0.05). In the participants' opinion, BL2 was the commonly requested shade by patients while restoring all anterior teeth (36%). Accordingly, BL2 was the commonly selected shade by participants for patients with high cosmetic demands (33%). However, A1 was the commonly selected shade by participants for patients with average cosmetic demands (35%). Conclusions: Dentists tended to meet the increased patient needs toward lighter tooth shade and have selected lighter tooth shades for average cosmetic demands patients and have selected whiter tooth shade for the patients' high cosmetic demands.Y