Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge of dental practitioners in actual therapeutic management of avulsed teeth in Germany. Methods: 16 randomly selected dental practitioners in private offices in each of the 16 capitals of all German counties were enquired by means of a telephone interview to answer a questionaire consisting of 18 questions. Without being prepared for the procedure the dentists were asked to answer questions including the average incidence of dental traumata in their office, their preferred transport medium for avulsed teeth, their opinion on whether or not cleaning is necessary prior to replantation, their endodontic treatment regime, preferred splinting technique and duration, their opinion on the necessity of tetanus vaccination, antibiotic therapy etc. Statistical evaluation was performed with Microsoft Excel and SPSS for Windows. Results: Overall our data showed no evidence for regional knowledge differences between the dentists involved in the survey. Average incidence of dental traumata was estimated with 1-3 per year in each office. 63% of the dentists prefer to clean an avulsed tooth with NaCl solution, 8% with H2O2 or root-scaling and 8% would replant the tooth without any cleaning. Functional splinting of avulsed teeth by means of adhesive steel-wire splinting is preferred by 58%, while both rigid fixation and acrylic cap splints were stated by 11% of the dentist as their therapy of choice. The majority of participants (61%) would select a time interval of 5 to 9 weeks for splinting duration. To check for the actual status of tetanus vaccination was regarded mandatory by 69% of the enquired dentists. Conclusions: Our results indicate a considerable lack of knowledge of recent evidence-based treatment strategies for avulsed teeth in dental offices throughout Germany. To enhance treatment success, continuous education on dental traumatology is highly recommended.

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