The role of air abrasion in preventing and treating early pit and fissure caries.

Traditional non-destructive methods of diagnosing pit and fissure caries, such as explorers and radiographs, have limited use in the detection of both early lesions and lesions extending well into dentin.1-3 Furthermore, bacteriological sampling of early dentin lesions provides little reason to believe that we can effectively “seal in” decay when present.4,5 With the emergence of pit and fissure decay as the most prevalent form of new decay in our population, accurate diagnosis and early prevention are becoming increasingly important. This article presents the clinician with a treatment technique for this hidden decay, which is estimated to affect 15% of first and second molars in 6to 18-year-olds.6