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Silver Fluoride

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I first heard about silver diamine fluoride (SDF) about a year ago from a parent of a patient who had just moved to the area and joined our practice. Their youngest daughter who was 18 months of age was diagnosed with decay on the interproximal areas of the maxillary incisors. The decay was large enough that the doctor was recommending for the to be treated. Due to the patients, young age and uncooperative behavior the doctor recommended general anesthesia to have the treatment completed. They were shocked as most parents are when they hear the recommendation of general anesthesia. They spoke with the doctor about a fluoride treatment their dentist in Chicago had used on their older child. It was called Advantage Arrest, a silver diamine fluoride…show more content…
(Rosenblatt, Stamford, & Niederman, 2009) Silver diamine fluoride has been approved by the FDA to treat tooth sensitivity, but there is currently an application for the use of dental caries indications. The SDF’s capability of arresting decay stems the from the fact that silver can kill pathogenic microorganisms above a certain concentration. It is capable of not only arresting active decay but also preventing new decay from forming at the area of…show more content…
SDF was placed and then evaluated to observe the effect on the biofilm. At the 7th day the colony forming units (CFU) of the bacteria had dropped to low values <1 for all species. Therefore, the application of SDF was shown to inhibit the cariogenic biofilm formation. They further found that repeated application of SDF will “enhance the effectiveness in caries arrest”. (Mei, Li, Chin-Man Lo, & Samaranayake, 2013) Some recommend a twice per year application will provide a better arrest rate than once a year. They also state that the darkening of the lesion noted at the follow up indicates success in caries
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