The Shortened Dental Arch concept from the perspective of Swedish General Dental Practitioners: a qualitative study

The aim was to study the cognizance of and attitudes towards the Shortened Dental Arch (SDA) concept among Swedish General Dental Practitioners (GDPs) and the application of the SDA concept in their treatment planning using Qualitative Content Analysis. Eleven Swedish GDPs were purposively selected and all agreed to participate. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted and covered treatment considerations concerning two patient cases and the participants' reflections regarding pre-formulated statements about the SDA concept. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze this data.The emerging theme was "the SDA concept is irrelevant" in the sense of the GDPs disregarding treatments providing dentitions with loss of posterior teeth. There was a strong reluctance to extract teeth, without consideration of the SDA concept, and a firmly patient-focused attitude towards the needs, age and financial situation of the patients. Within the limitations of this study, Swedish GDPs show little or no cognizance of the SDA concept and it does not seem to be applied in their treatment planning. The results show that the qualitative methodology can be beneficial for further understanding of cognizance and attitudes towards the SDA concept.