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Non-restorative Approaches for Managing Cavitated Dentin Carious Lesions

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Pediatric Restorative Dentistry

Abstract

Dental caries is one of the most prevalent childhood diseases globally. Most of the decayed teeth in children remain untreated. Traditionally, cavitated dentine carious lesions have been treated using a restorative approach. However, this approach is neither affordable nor available for caries management in many disadvantaged communities. Recently, the use of simple nonoperative approaches to manage the situation has been advocated. This chapter presents a number of nonoperative approaches which are feasible and effective for caries management in children. These include toothbrushing with fluoride toothpaste and the use of various fluoride agents for slowing down the progression of cavitated carious lesions. As silver diammine fluoride (SDF) has gained much attention due to its good results in arresting dentine caries, there is focused discussion on the clinical use of SDF in children and its effectiveness. Besides the use of different fluoride agents, dental plaque control remains crucial in affecting the success of caries arrest treatment in young children.

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Lo, E.C.M., Duangthip, D. (2019). Non-restorative Approaches for Managing Cavitated Dentin Carious Lesions. In: Coelho Leal, S., Takeshita, E. (eds) Pediatric Restorative Dentistry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93426-6_10

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