The influence of restorative treatment approaches and the use of local analgesia, on the children’s discomfort

Abstract

The aim is to investigate possible differences in discomfort during treatment with the atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) or the Conventional restorative method with and without local analgesia (LA). The study group consisted of 6 and 7 year old children with no dental experience (mean age 6.98, SD +/- 0.52) randomly divided into four treatment groups: Conventional method with and without LA and ART with and without LA. One or two proximal lesions in primary molars were treated. The heart rate and the behaviour (Venham) were measured. Statistical analysis was performed in SPSS version 10.0. In a first session 300 children were treated and 109 children for a second time in the same way as at the first visit. During the first session ART without LA gave the least discomfort while the Conventional method without LA gave the most discomfort. During the second treatment the least discomfort was observed with ART without LA and the most discomfort in the Conventional way with LA. There is a constant preference for hand instruments; the bur is increasingly accepted. The experience with LA is the reverse.