Restorative dentistry clinical decision-making for hypodontia: complex cases.

Hypodontia is a relatively common condition and patients will be seen by both general dental practitioners and specialist dental colleagues. Although hypodontia can be described as mild, moderate and severe, this does not directly correlate with the complexity of treatment required to provide an acceptable outcome. In addition, the complexity of treatment provided by one colleague in the multidisciplinary team may not be the same as for other colleagues.When treatment planning and delivering dental care for these patients, especially those with severe hypodontia, it is useful to recognise the factors that make their care complex and also to follow principles for multidisciplinary treatment planning.

Debonding of cast metal-based cantilever and fixed-fixed resin-retained bridgework: A review of the literature.

AIM: Cast metal-based resin-retained bridgework (RRB) offers a practical, conservative approach when restoring edentulous spaces. This review examines the debonding of cast metal-based RRB, comparing cantilever resin-retained bridgework (CRRB) and fixed-fixed resin-retained bridgework (FRRB) designs taking into context developments in RRB design, construction, and cementation over time. METHODS: An electronic search was conducted through Medline and Embase with the aid of Boolean operators to combine the following key words: "adhesive bridges", "resin-bonded bridges", "resin-retained bridges", "resin-bonded fixed partial dentures", "cantilever", "debond", "fixed-fixed", "decementation", "failure", "success", "outcome", "longevity" and "survival". The search was limited to peer-reviewed articles written in English and published from 1995 through to 2019. MAIN FINDINGS: Thirty-one studies were included. Five studies compared the longevity of CRRB versus FRRB, five assessed the clinical performance of CRRBs alone, and 21 studies assessed the clinical performance of FRRBs. There was great variability in study design and the reporting of clinical outcomes, and an analysis and critique of the included papers is provided. Overall, CRRB tend to debond less and hence provide longer-term and more reliable clinical service when compared to FRRB. PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS: More high-level, long-term, prospective and clinical controlled trials are required to further analyse and evaluate the long-term outcomes of cast metal-based RRB.

Pulpotomy for the Management of Irreversible Pulpitis in Mature Teeth (PIP): a feasibility study.

BACKGROUND: Progression of dental caries can result in irreversible pulpal damage. Partial irreversible pulpitis is the initial stage of this damage, confined to the coronal pulp whilst the radicular pulp shows little or no sign of infection. Preserving the pulp with sustained vitality and developing minimally invasive biologically based therapies are key themes within contemporary clinical practice. However, root canal treatment involving complete removal of the pulp is often the only option (other than extraction) given to patients with irreversible pulpitis, with substantial NHS and patient incurred costs. The European Society of Endodontology's (ESE 2019) recent consensus statement recommends full pulpotomy, where the inflamed coronal pulp is removed with the goal of keeping the radicular pulp vital, as a more minimally invasive technique, potentially avoiding complex root canal treatment. Although this technique may be provided in secondary care, it has not been routinely implemented or evaluated in UK General Dental Practice. METHOD: This feasibility study aims to identify and assess in a primary care setting the training needs of general dental practitioners and clinical fidelity of the full pulpotomy intervention, estimate likely eligible patient pool and develop recruitment materials ahead of the main randomised controlled trial comparing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of full pulpotomy compared to root canal treatment in pre/molar teeth of adults 16 years and older showing signs indicative of irreversible pulpitis. The feasibility study will recruit and train 10 primary care dentists in the full pulpotomy technique. Dentists will recruit and provide full pulpotomy to 40 participants (four per practice) with indications of partial irreversible pulpitis. DISCUSSION: The Pulpotomy for the Management of Irreversible Pulpitis in Mature Teeth (PIP) study will address the lack of high-quality evidence in the treatment of irreversible pulpitis, to aid dental practitioners, patients and policymakers in their decision-making. The PIP feasibility study will inform the main study on the practicality of providing both training and provision of the full pulpotomy technique in general dental practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN17973604 . Registered on 28 January 2021. Protocol version Protocol version: 1; date: 03.02.2021.

Selective Caries Removal in Permanent Teeth (SCRiPT) for the treatment of deep carious lesions: a randomised controlled clinical trial in primary care.

BACKGROUND: Dental caries is one of the most prevalent non-communicable disease globally and can have serious health sequelae impacting negatively on quality of life. In the UK most adults experience dental caries during their lifetime and the 2009 Adult Dental Health Survey reported that 85% of adults have at least one dental restoration. Conservative removal of tooth tissue for both primary and secondary caries reduces the risk of failure due to tooth-restoration, complex fracture as well as remaining tooth surfaces being less vulnerable to further caries. However, despite its prevalence there is no consensus on how much caries to remove prior to placing a restoration to achieve optimal outcomes. Evidence for selective compared to complete or near-complete caries removal suggests there may be benefits for selective removal in sustaining tooth vitality, therefore avoiding abscess formation and pain, so eliminating the need for more complex and costly treatment or eventual tooth loss. However, the evidence is of low scientific quality and mainly gleaned from studies in primary teeth. METHOD: This is a pragmatic, multi-centre, two-arm patient randomised controlled clinical trial including an internal pilot set in primary dental care in Scotland and England. Dental health professionals will recruit 623 participants over 12-years of age with deep carious lesions in their permanent posterior teeth. Participants will have a single tooth randomised to either the selective caries removal or complete caries removal treatment arm. Baseline measures and outcome data (during the 3-year follow-up period) will be assessed through clinical examination, patient questionnaires and NHS databases. A mixed-method process evaluation will complement the clinical and economic outcome evaluation and examine implementation, mechanisms of impact and context. The primary outcome at three years is sustained tooth vitality. The primary economic outcome is net benefit modelled over a lifetime horizon. Clinical secondary outcomes include pulp exposure, progession of caries, restoration failure; as well as patient-centred and economic outcomes. DISCUSSION: SCRiPT will provide evidence for the most clinically effective and cost-beneficial approach to managing deep carious lesions in permanent posterior teeth in primary care. This will support general dental practitioners, patients and policy makers in decision making. Trial Registration Trial registry: ISRCTN. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN76503940. Date of Registration: 30.10.2019. URL of trial registry record: https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN76503940?q=ISRCTN76503940%20&filters=&sort=&offset=1&totalResults=1&page=1&pageSize=10&searchType=basic-search .