Application of a Caries Treatment Difficulty Assessment System in Dental Caries Management

Abstract

Dental caries is one of the most common chronic diseases caused by progressive bacteria, affecting all age groups. Today, restorative fillings are widely used for dental caries treatment, but the restorative treatment has a high failure rate. Meanwhile, many researchers have discovered the differences of caries risk among populations by using the caries risk assessment and put forward a new standpoint that caries should be treated individually. Therefore, our research group established a Dental Caries Treatment Difficulty Assessment system in a previous study. This time, we combined the caries risk assessment with the caries treatment difficulty assessment, then used Python to design a Dental Caries Management Software. The purpose of this case report is to present a case applying this software in dental caries management and other data collected in Chengdu, China, with this software on the assessment of caries treatment difficulty. Patients with personalized assessment and management can achieve good treatment results, including reducing the risk and treatment difficulty of dental caries. At the same time, other cases show that the software has good application potential in individual management and group information collection. These cases indicate that the software enables dentists to carry out both the risk assessments and the treatment difficulty assessment of patients, and it has the potential as a tool for epidemiological investigation. It also enables dentists and patients to have a basic understanding of the dental health status of patients and create personalized dental caries treatment, so as to achieve the goal of controlling the progression of dental caries and rebuilding the structure and restoring the function of teeth.

Keywords: caries risk assessment; dental caries management; software; treatment difficulty assessment.

Figure 1

Application process of Caries Prevention and Management Software.

Figure 2

(a) The photograph of the patient at first visit; (b) Upper teeth; (c) Lower teeth; (d) Panoramic X-ray of the patient (after the root canal therapy of teeth 46).

Figure 3

(a) Caries Risk Assessment Form; (b) Personalized caries management plan; (c) Caries treatment difficulty assessment.

Figure 4

(a–c) During the first treatment; (d–f) First treatment completed.

Figure 5

(a,b) One year after treatment; (c,d) After the dentist dealt with the new problem in time.

Figure 6

(a) Caries Risk Assessment Form of return visit; (b) Personalized caries management plan of return visit; (c) Caries treatment difficulty assessment of return visit.

Figure 7

Two years after treatment.

Figure 8

(a) Five years after treatment; (b) Retreatment completed.

Figure 9

(a) Proportion of each caries risk grade; (b) Proportion of each treatment difficulty grade.

Figure 10

(a) Treatment difficulty grade proportion in gender; (b) Risk level proportion in gender; (c) Proportion of treatment difficulty grades in each age group; (d) Proportion of risk levels in each age group; (e) Proportion by occupation category; (f) Proportion of treatment difficulty grades in each occupational category; (g) Proportion of risk levels in each occupational category.

Figure 10

(a) Treatment difficulty grade proportion in gender; (b) Risk level proportion in gender; (c) Proportion of treatment difficulty grades in each age group; (d) Proportion of risk levels in each age group; (e) Proportion by occupation category; (f) Proportion of treatment difficulty grades in each occupational category; (g) Proportion of risk levels in each occupational category.

Figure 11

(a) Patients who like to drink carbonated drinks have a higher proportion of Grade III difficulty. (b) Patients who like sweets have a higher proportion of Grade III difficulty. (c) Patients who brush their teeth less than once a day have a higher proportion of Grade III difficulty. (d) Patients who go to the dentist regularly have a lower proportion of Grade III difficulty. (e) Patients who ever had orthodontic treatment have a lower proportion of Grade III difficulty.