Drill-free treatment

Especially in pediatric dentistry, we often use minimally invasive to non-invasive methods for treating cavities. These techniques are suitable for very fearful or very young children who are unable to cooperate.

Silvering of teeth

We use this technique on primary teeth where the cavity has not penetrated the dental pulp. The cavity site is coated with a tasteless and odorless solution, and silver particles impregnate the damaged structures, stopping the decay process. The downside is that the treated area will darken. However, this method helps us delay drilling until the child is able to cooperate or until the tooth falls out.

SMART – Silver Modified Atraumatic Restorative Treatment and Hall Technique

In the SMART technique, the dental cavity is manually excavated, treated with a silver solution, and filled with glass ionomer cement, which matches the color of the tooth and has a strength similar to composite materials. The advantage is that it releases fluorides and supports the dental nerve in defending against decay. This technique is only used for teeth where the cavity does not affect the dental nerve and where the tooth has not yet caused pain. The downside is that the glass ionomer filling material is less mechanically durable and may wear out over time, requiring the treatment to be repeated or, with better cooperation, redone with composite material.

In the Hall technique, the treated tooth is cleaned, silvered, and a stainless steel crown is fixed onto it, which prevents oxygen and nutrients from reaching the cavity-causing bacteria, leading to their death. This technique is also only used for teeth where the cavity does not affect the dental nerve and where the tooth has not yet caused pain.

Strip Crowns

Strip crowns are used for treating cavities in anterior primary teeth. They are plastic molds into which filling material is applied and then placed on the front teeth, from which we have previously manually removed some of the dental decay. Excess material is then removed from the surroundings, and the teeth are illuminated with a polymerization lamp to cure the material. We either remove the molds immediately or ask the child to return in 2 hours to have them removed once the material has set on its own.

We do not use strip crowns when dental cavities affect the dental pulp, when teeth are dead, or when they are so extensively destroyed that there is insufficient hard dental tissue remaining for securing the crowns, or if the child is not cooperative enough for such a procedure to be performed.

Strip crowns primarily serve to stop the spread of cavities and to prevent complete destruction of the teeth and their very early loss; the aesthetic function is secondary. Since this treatment is mostly performed on very young children, whose cooperation is limited, we consider this treatment to be more or less temporary (the crowns may come off) and focused on function rather than aesthetics (due to the child’s movements, there may be size or shape differences in the treated teeth). Adjustments such as grinding or smoothing due to shape after the crowns are removed are generally not feasible due to the child’s young age and not entirely adequate cooperation.