In vitro comparison of the effectiveness of conventional hand excavation and rotary instrument in caries removal in primary teeth

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate microhardness of remaining dentin after caries removal and to determine whether sufficient preparation is realised with hand excavation. Twenty-six extracted primary molar teeth with occlusal/proximal carious lesions were bisected through the middle of the lesion mesiodistally. The first half of teeth are incorporated in Group 1 (rotary), and the other half are included in Group 2 (hand excavation). The pre-excavation and post-excavation digital photos of the samples are superimposed. The area difference rate is acquired by measuring before and after cavity cleaning. The same samples are used for measuring the microhardness determined on remaining dentin. In the analysis of the data, Paired Sample t tests and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) are utilised. When comparing the effectiveness of caries removal and average dentin hardness of Group 1 and Group 2 through digital imaging, no statistically significant difference is observed (p > ? : 0.05). Following the analysis made according to the microhardness measurements conducted close to the cavity floor in Group 2 is found relatively lower in comparison to the one in Group 1 (p < ? : 0.10). It is concluded that hand excavation technique is as at least effective as conventional technique in caries removal.