CURRENT TRENDS IN DENTAL CARIES PREVENTION: LITERATURE OVERVIEW

Abstract

Introduction. It is known that the main dental diseases in general, and dental caries in particular, are considered manageable and can be prevented, but their prevalence is increasing from year to year. At the present stage, the system of prevention of dental diseases is becoming in-creasingly important.
Aim. The given article is dedicated to the overview of the current trends in dental caries prevention.
Results. Scientists single out traditional and modern ap-proaches to caries management. There are four main tra-ditional trends in caries treatment. They are surgical model, antibiotic model, probiotic approach, and caries balance concept. Nowadays more emphasis is being placed on dental caries prediction and caries risk analy-sis than mere detection of cavities which require immedi-ate filling. While in the past, the cavities were filled at their earliest detection, now the indications for restora-tive treatment have narrowed. Instead of restorative treatment, plaque control measures are employed to pro-mote remineralization and reversal of the dental caries process. Recent trends in caries prevention also include several approaches. One of the most widely applied is fluoride. One of the most widely studied now is caries vaccine.
Conclusion. Carrying out preventive measures for major dental diseases should be aimed, on the one hand, at eliminating etiological factors, and on the other hand, at increasing the resistance of hard and soft tissues of teeth and oral cavity, the body's resistance to adverse factors. The most common concepts of the etiology and pathogen-esis of dental caries and periodontal tissue diseases indi-cate a direct relationship with bacterial status, oral hy-giene and the level of body resistance. The experience in the prevention of dental caries showed that the most effec-tive is the prevention of an individual focus.