Minimal intervention dentistry procedures: a ten year retrospective study

Minimal Intervention Dentistry (MID) is an effective treatment approach with increasing acceptance among dental professionals.

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.

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.

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).

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.