Table 1 The questions targeted the dentists in the study regarding diagnosis and treatment of patients in Operative Dentistry

1

Do you restrict the treatment to patient’s chief complaint, or perform full mouth charting and patient risk assessment before making decision regarding restoring carious lesion?

2

Do you rely in caries diagnosis on clinical criteria, or clinical criteria with radiographs, or aided other diagnostic tools?

3

Do you treat incipient non-cavitated lesions with preventive non-operative treatment, or with operative treatment?

4

Do you treat discolored occlusal fissures with preventive non-operative treatment, or with operative treatment as class I cavity preparation, or with fissure sealant and/or preventive resin restoration?

5

Do you treat lesions confined to enamel with preventive non-operative treatment, or with operative treatment?

6

Do you routinely restore arrested asymptomatic lesions, or only upon patient’s demand?

7

Do you treat approximal lesion shows on radiograph confined to enamel (localized enamel breakdown without visual signs of dentinal exposure), with preventive non-operative treatment, or with operative treatment?

8

Do you treat deep dentinal carious lesions through removal of soft dentin leaving discolored hard dentin on the floor of deep cavities, or complete removal of soft and hard carious dentin leaving caries-free stain-free floor?

9

Do you routinely replace old failed restorations, or repair them if possible?

10

Do you keep old restorations with no clinical or radiographical signs of failure, or replace them upon patient’s demand?

11

Do you keep and polish old stained restorations (peripheral staining) without clinical symptoms or replace them?