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EDITORIAL article

Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Preventive Dentistry
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1565605
This article is part of the Research Topic Minimal Intervention Dentistry for Dental Caries Management View all 5 articles

Editorial: Minimal Intervention Dentistry for Dental Caries Management

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China
  • 2 Thammasat University, Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 3 Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Our current understanding of dental caries as a non-communicable, chronic disease influenced by behavior, rather than as an infectious disease, has resulted in a shift in the philosophy of caries prevention and management (4). The traditional clinical approach, which addresses signs and symptoms associated with the disease in its advanced stages and focuses only on restorative therapy, is no longer sufficient as this approach fails to address etiological factors of dental caries. Caries prevention or control cannot be achieved only with restorative procedures. The success of restorative, or surgical management heavily depends on the longevity of dental restorations. However, all types of dental restorations have a limited lifespan, even with advancements in material science in restorative and adhesive dentistry. Repeated re-restorations due to dislodgement and replacement of dental restorations lead to further destruction of dental hard tissue and, ultimately, tooth loss. This has led to a shift in contemporary caries management from the traditional surgical approach to a new concept that focuses on controlling etiological and risk factors (4).Since 2002, the World Dental Federation (FDI) has endorsed the use of Minimal Intervention Dentistry (MID) for managing dental caries (5). MID aims to preserve dental structure and pulpal vitality, thus extending the lifespan of teeth. The primary goal is to enable disease healing through improved oral health. It emphasizes nonrestorative intervention to inhibit mineral loss at all caries stages, incorporating early caries detection, risk assessment, remineralization of demineralized enamel and dentine, optimal preventive measures, minimally invasive operative interventions, and restoration repair rather than replacement. synthesized in polymethacrylic acid (PMAA) for caries control through topical application (7) . These authors explored the biological properties of this innovative topical anti-caries agent for arresting dentin caries based on AgNCls synthesized in PMAA. Their results indicated that AgNCls/PMAA exhibited chemical stability, acceptable cytotoxicity, and a potential antibacterial effect against strains associated with caries lesions, even at very low silver concentrations. This study underscored the anti-caries potential of AgNCls/PMAA as a MID strategy for dental caries prevention. This research topic also features a laboratory-based study and a randomized controlled clinical trial focusing on minimally invasive operative interventions. When dental caries evolves into an advanced stage, leading to cavity formation, minimally invasive restorative treatment is the recommended course of action. This treatment aligns with the MID philosophy, prioritizing the preservation of healthy dental hard tissues and the remineralization of affected carious tissue post-caries removal, thereby extending the lifespan of the natural tooth.Kitsahawong et al. conducted a two-year clinical trial to compare the long-term status of dental restorations following chemo-mechanical caries removal (CMCR) with those after conventional drilling (8) . Their findings indicate that CMCR is as effective as conventional drilling for complete caries removal and restoration success at 24 months in primary teeth.Even though CMCR necessitates long chair time, this technique results in less treatmentrelated discomfort, suggesting that CMCR, as an MID approach, could be a promising alternative to conventional 'drilling and filling'.

    Keywords: Dental Caries, Minimally invasive dentistry, minimal intervention dentistry, Cariology, Remineralisation, Demineralisation

    Received: 23 Jan 2025; Accepted: 05 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Panpisut, Baysan and Chu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ollie Yiru Yu, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China

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