Preventing dental caries: part 2. case studies in prevention

The previous paper1 considered the scientific evidence for the advice the dental team can give to individual patients on caries prevention. In addition, the major impact of the ‘diagnostic threshold’ of individual clinicians on preventive interventions was highlighted. In this paper, case studies are presented which bring the preventive messages together. Experienced clinicians will no doubt have gathered much of this evidence together through practical experience. The main caveat is that in dentistry, as in many branches of medicine, there are a number of ways for experienced clinicians to achieve a set goal, so that the case studies and the suggested answers are not definitive, but do have a practical clarity and simplicity.

A mother brings her 3½-year-old daughter to your dental practice. She has noticed that the upper primary anterior teeth have become brown in colour and pieces of them are breaking off (Figure 1).