Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) in Thailand.

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine how Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) was implemented in Thailand, rationale and difficulties in practicing ART, by sending structured questionnaires to two groups of dental personnel : 148 persons in 75 provinces and 136 participants in ART seminars or training programs since 1994. It was found that some dental personnel accepted ART technique as an alternative dental caries treatment and modified the technique to be more practical. The ART-trained group accepted and adopted the technique more than those in the first group. This technique was mainly used in general dental out-patient. The other targets were specific in some projects and in mobile dental caries treatment. Primary dentition, class I cavity and dentine-depth cavity were major criteria in using ART technique. The personnel reported that reasons for accepting and using ART were as follow : agreeing with ART principle, trusting in fluoride released from Glass Ionomer, and easy practicing. For the ones who did not use ART, the reasons were inadequate removal of entire caries by using hand instruments, as well as insufficient researches ensuring the effectiveness of ART technique. Furthermore, the practitioners found some difficulties of this technique which required further improvement.