Conservative treatment for deep carious lesions in primary and young permanent teeth.

The management of deeply carious lesion could be accomplished conservatively by two techniques: an indirect single-step and stepwise techniques. The former involves incomplete removal of carious dentin and then application of a well-sealed permanent restoration. While the latter involves incomplete removal of caries and then reentry after a period to remove the residual caries, after changing its environment. The aim of this article was to review the dental literature concerning the conservative methods available to treat deeply carious teeth. A literature search was done using electronic databases "PubMed," "Google Scholar," and "Cochrane Database" for articles in English. Several keywords were used: conservative treatment, deep caries, deeply carious lesion, indirect pulp capping (IPC), and stepwise excavation. This review mentions two operative methods for conservative treatment of deeply carious lesions, namely, IPC, including criteria for case selection and success and failure of the deeply carious lesion, and an account on various used materials. Both single-step and stepwise IPC techniques could be used for managing deeply carious lesions with maintaining pulp vitality; more longitudinal studies are needed to determine which technique is preferable to be used.

Dental fear in primary school children and its relation to dental caries.

BACKGROUND: Successful management of dental fear in children prevents its progression into adulthood. This study aimed to assess the level of dental fear among school children and to determine its relationship with dental caries. The study design was a cross-sectional analytical study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A sample of 1,546 primary school children were randomly selected. The Children's Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) was completed in class to assess child dental fear. Caries experience was measured as decayed, missed, and filled permanent and primary teeth (DMFT/dmft) according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. RESULTS: Approximately 24% of the participated children had high dental fear, and 12.50% of them had severe dental fear. Girls had higher rate of severe dental fear than boys (20% vs. 5%). The severity of caries was significantly increased in children who had higher fear scores (P = 0.035). CONCLUSION: About one quarter of 6- to 12-year-old children had dental fear; about half of them had severe dental fear. Dental fear has a direct relationship with decayed permanent teeth and an inverse relationship with restored permanent teeth.