Atraumatic Restorative Treatment - ART For Dental Caries | ACFF

Atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) is an alternative treatment for dental caries used to emove demineralized and insensitive outer carious dentin with hand instruments only. Therefore, no electricity or anesthesia is required and pain, usually experienced in conventional cavity preparation, is kept to a minimum. Originally, ART was developed for use in developing rural countries because it does not require local anesthesia or electricity. More recently, ART has become increasingly accepted in developed countries because of its “atraumatic” approach in relation to the stress and pain experienced by patients. ART conserves tooth structure, minimizing trauma, and has been found to reduce pain perhaps due to the creation of smaller cavities. This technique has been found to be useful in children, elderly, special needs patients and those patients with fear and anxiety about dental treatment1,3. Pain and anxiety are significantly lower in both children and adults who receive ART therapy compared to conventional therapy 2,3. Overall, patients feel less fear and discomfort when receiving ART compared to conventional rotary instruments. Hand instruments are used to remove carious tooth substance. Anesthesia is not necessary. The cavity is filled and adjacent enamel fissures are sealed with conventional self-hardening glass ionomer restorative cement. Little information is available about use of materials other than GIC in this method4. Hence GIC (glass ionomer cement) is the filling material of choice for ART.