Clinical evaluation of a chemomechanical method for caries removal in children and adolescents

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

Four from every five young patients preferred the use of Carisolv to that of rotary instrumentation although caries removal took twice as long.

Main

Peric T, Markovic D et al. Acta Odontol Scand 2009; 67: 277–283

In this prospective controlled trial, caries was removed from teeth in 120 patients aged 3 -17 years old, using either Carisolv (chemomechanical) or rotary instrumentation. All patients had received rotary instrumentation 3 to 12 months prior to this study. Outcomes were measured using clinical criteria. Eighty percent of patients preferred Carisolv. In addition, the need for local analgesia was also significantly reduced with Carisolv. 'The mean (SD) time for chemomechanical caries removal was 11.2 (3.3) min and 5.2 (2.8) min for caries removal with rotary instruments (p <0.001...)'. Seven percent of patients found both methods 'equally unpleasant'. Significantly, the authors share the opinion of others that the 'chemomechanical method is of less interest for small cavities because of the lack of visibility and access'.