Introduction:

The replacement of defective restorations, which leads to a greater loss of the dental remnant before each replacement, represents the large majority of the dentist's practice.

Objective:

To determine if there is any variation in students´ clinical criterion in relation to the decision of replacement of composite resin restorations prior to and following reconditioning.

Material and Methods:

A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted. The sample was composed of 40 fifth-year students in a universe of 72. A set of photographs showing defective restorations in one or more parameters evaluated according to RYGE / USPHS criteria was used. They were later reconditioned, so there were photographs prior to and following conservative treatment. Based on the photographs shown, a survey in which they had to indicate the choice of treatment was performed.

Results:

We observed that there is a great variation in the choice of treatment prior to the repair with conservative treatments (38%) and non-conservative ones (62%), compared to the same resin restoration after the choice of conservative treatment (83%) and non-conservative one (17%). Using the McNemar Test, p<0.0001 was obtained between the choice of conservative treatment over the non-conservative one after the restoration reconditioning had been performed.

Conclusions:

There is a change in perception of the indication of treatment to repair defective restorations towards a conservative alternative after they have undergone minimally invasive procedures.

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