Preventive resin restorations: practice and billing patterns of pediatric dentists

The purpose of this study was to determine practice patterns of pediatric dentists for preventive resin restorations (PRRs) and if they believe a code should be added to the American Dental Association's current dental terminology (CDT) for the PRR.

A 16-question survey sent to 475 pediatric dentists randomly selected from the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry database, addressed demographics, treatment planning, techniques in preparation and restoration, billing practices, and perceptions about the need for a CDT code for PRRs.

Two hundred thirty-eight (50%) surveys were returned, revealing that 72% of respondents perform PRRs and 64% feel that a PRR code should be added to the CDT Fifty-two percent believe not having a CDT code could cause dentists to perform more invasive dentistry to comply with billing requirements that Class I restorations be in dentin. PRRs are commonly treatment planned for deep pits and fissures with questionable decoy not entering dentin. Up to 50% of respondents could be erroneously billing for PRRs.

Most pediatric dentists perform preventive resin restorations in their office and believe that a code for the procedure needs to be added to the current dental terminology.