Minimal Intervention Dentistry Procedures: a Ten Year Retrospective Study

Minimal Intervention Dentistry (MID) is an effective treatment approach with increasing acceptance among dental professionals. Objective - This study aimed to evaluate the MID impact on Dentistry by analyzing procedures performed on patients treated at a Pediatric Dentistry Graduate Program clinic which implemented MID. Study design - The number of procedures including sealants, modified atraumatic restorative treatment (mART), resin crowns, direct pulp capping, pulpotomy, pulpectomy, and deciduous/permanent extractions from 333 pediatric patients treated between the years 2001 to 2003 and 2008 to 2010 in Distrito Federal, Brazil were analyzed. Statistical analysis involved chi-square and G Williams tests. Results - 783 procedures were analyzed and demonstrated that there was a significant reduction of sealant placement in the last triennium when compared to the first one (p<0.0001). Moreover, there was a significant increase in the amount of mART (p<0.0001). This increase in mART procedures resulted in a significant reduction in procedures with pulp involvement: direct pulp capping (p=0.0014), pulpotomy (p=0.0014) and pulpectomy (p=0.0002). Conclusions - Based on the results, MID represented a positive impact on the intervention on caries lesions in patients, mainly reflected by the significant reduction in the number of direct pulp capping, pulpotomy and pulpectomy.