title: An alternate technique of care using silver fluoride followed by stannous fluoride in the management of root caries in aged care.
abstract: An alternate technique of care to prevent, arrest and manage root caries using aqueous silver fluoride followed by stannous fluoride (AgF+SnF2) in aged care is demonstrated by three case studies. With increasing age, the inability to maintain ones own oral care from dementia, illness or frailty and polypharmacy induced salivary gland hypofunction will result in dental caries becoming a progessively greater burden for the elderly. Future generations of elders will live longer and need to maintain many more teeth longer than earlier generations. Both silver diamine fluoride (SDF)and AgF+SnF2 arrest and prevent caries and are easy to use in residential aged care facilities. Clinical differences between SDF and AgF+SnF2 are discussed. However, in aged care, AgF+SnF2 may offer advantages over SDF. AgF+SnF2 used to arrest and prevent caries in children can be modified to provide effective but minimally invasive care for an ageing and frail population. These techniques are rapid, inexpensive and nonthreatening suited to treat frail elders, dementia patients exhibiting challenging behaviours and patients with multiple rapidly progressing decay. Silver fluoride, applied before placing glass-ionomer cement (GIC) restorations is an important adjunct to the atraumatic restorative technique and may retard caries reactivation more than GIC used alone.
authors.affiliation: General practitioner, Bondi Junction, NSW.|MPhil graduate student, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deutsch
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002327:Cariostatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016321:Dental Care for Aged / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005459:Fluorides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010166:Palliative Care; D017213:Root Caries / Q000188:drug therapy*; D018030:Silver Compounds / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014002:Tin Fluorides / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D002327:Cariostatic Agents; D018030:Silver Compounds; D014002:Tin Fluorides; C105022:silver fluoride; D005459:Fluorides
keywords: aged care; arrest; dementia; minimally invasive; prevention; root caries; silver fluoride with stannous fluoride; silver fluorides