Influence of the patient’s skin color on the choice of dental treatment for caries

Aim: The aim was to evaluate the influence of the patient’s skin color on the choice of dental treatment by academics from a university in the south of the state of Santa Catarina (SC). Methods: This is a randomized trial carried out with undergraduate students in dentistry at the University of Criciúma, Santa Catarina. All academics regularly enrolled in the 5th to 10th phases of the dentistry course were invited to participate. Half of the students, randomly, received the clinical case with white skin color, and the other half, the same clinical case but with black skin color. After the distribution of the cases, the participants self-administered a questionnaire with sociodemographic aspects and with the options for choosing treatment for the caries lesion. Crude and adjusted analyses of the association between the patient’s skin color and the choice of treatment were performed through multinomial logistic regression, with a significance level of 5%. Results: In total, 159 academics were studied. When using direct restoration with composite resin as a reference, patients with black skin color were 56% less likely to receive indirect restoration with composite resin (Onlay) when compared to white skin color (RRR=0.44; 95%CI 0.21-0.93; p=0.032). Conclusions: This alarming result showed that the patient’s skin color influenced the caries treatment chosen by dental students, which can result in black patients not receiving better treatment.