Premium
Pulp response in primary teeth with deep residual caries treated with silver fluoride and glass ionomer cement (‘atraumatic’ technique)
Author(s) -
Gotjamanos Theo
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
australian dental journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.701
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1834-7819
pISSN - 0045-0421
DOI - 10.1111/j.1834-7819.1996.tb03142.x
Subject(s) - dentistry , glass ionomer cement , fluoride , pulp (tooth) , cement , odontoblast , zinc oxide eugenol , medicine , materials science , chemistry , root canal , composite material , inorganic chemistry
A bstract — Histological assessment of the dental pulps of 55 carious primary teeth was carried out 3 to 56 months after treatment by the ‘atraumatic’ technique involving application of 40 per cent silver fluoride to residual caries followed by restoration with glass ionomer cement. Fifty of the 55 teeth examined showed a favourable pulpal response, including presence of abundant reparative dentine and a wide odontoblast layer. Histological comparisons were made between these teeth and others not treated with silver fluoride but restored with glass ionomer cement, amalgam or zinc oxide and eugenol. Possible mechanisms of the action of silver fluoride in arresting residual caries are discussed. The question of whether or not treatment of carious dentine with silver fluoride represents a biologically acceptable clinical procedure cannot be answered on the basis of pulpal histology alone. The very high concentration of fluoride in commercial preparations of silver fluoride raises several questions concerning its clinical safety.