The Conversation – Nicola Innes and Mark Robertson
Nearly half of all British adults and just over one in five Australian adults fear the dentist. Research shows that having dental treatment as a child is a common reason for this fear in adulthood. This is not surprising given that most children’s experience of the dentist involves injections followed by drilling. And who can forget the sound of a dentist’s drill? By taking advantage of recent advances in our understanding of tooth decay, we have investigated and developed new treatments that don’t need injections or drilling. One of these is called the Hall technique. It involves placing a small stainless steel crown over affected baby teeth to seal in the decay.