How to treat tooth decay in children

For children, if they do not pay attention to oral hygiene or eat too much sweets, it is easy to cause tooth decay in children. This will cause great harm to the future tooth replacement and the appearance of teeth. As parents, we should help children get good treatment in time. There are many treatment methods, such as drug treatment, filling treatment, inlay treatment, crown restoration treatment, etc.

1. Drug treatment

When the caries area of ​​deciduous teeth is extensive and it is difficult to prepare the cavity for filling, drug treatment can be used. Drug treatment means first reshaping the shape of the carious teeth, then cleaning and drying the tooth surface, and applying the drug on the tooth surface. Commonly used drugs include 2% sodium fluoride, 8 9/6 stannous fluoride, silver nitrate, fluorophosphoric acid, 38% silver ammonium fluoride and other solutions. Of these drugs, silver nitrate and silver ammonium fluoride are corrosive, while the others are non-corrosive and can be used for particularly uncooperative children. Drug treatment is simple to use and can inhibit the progression of caries, but drug treatment cannot restore the normal shape of deciduous teeth. Therefore, if conditions permit, restorative treatments such as fillings should be used as much as possible.

2. Filling treatment

It refers to the removal of carious diseased tissue, preparing a cavity with a certain retention force, and then filling it with dental materials to restore the original shape of the tooth. This method is the most commonly used method to treat caries in primary teeth. When preparing the cavity, care should be taken to remove the infected softened dentin. The type of filling material to be used is determined based on factors such as the position of the deciduous teeth, whether it is close to the replacement period, the shape and retention of the cavity, and the depth of the caries cavity. Among them, glass ionomer cement and polyhydroxy acid cement can be used for various cavity shapes, but due to their low compressive strength, they are only suitable for repairing caries cavities in deciduous teeth that are close to the replacement period. Silver amalgam is suitable for filling caries in all deciduous teeth. Composite resin can be used for various types of cavities in deciduous teeth. It is close to the color of teeth, looks more beautiful, is easy to operate, and is commonly used in clinical practice. However, its compressive strength is not as good as that of silver amalgam.

3. Inlay treatment

Using inlays to repair caries in deciduous teeth can effectively restore the contact relationship between the two teeth, reduce secondary caries, and the inlay has high compressive strength and can withstand greater chewing forces.

4. Crown restoration treatment

When severe caries in deciduous teeth causes large parts of the tooth tissue to be lost, they can be repaired with finished metal crowns just like adults.