Icon: Treatment for Incipient Caries and White Spots

A key challenge for dentists is how to treat caries while preserving healthy tooth structure.

Two current treatment options for caries are: Fluoride therapy or wait till “drill and fill”. Both are somewhat inadequate. This is because fluoride therapy is not always effective in the advanced stages and a filling almost always sacrifices significant amounts of healthy tooth structure.
Icon, from DMG America, has a new approach to the treatment of incipient caries – a caries
infiltrant. This breakthrough micro-invasive technology fills and reinforces demineralized enamel without drilling or anesthesia.

Here’s how it works:

“After isolating the tooth with a rubber dam and placing wedges to separate the teeth, the tooth surface is prepared with a 15% HCL gel to open the pore system of the lesion body. Next, the surface is rinsed, dried with ethanol, and further dried with air. The Icon Infiltrant resin, which has a high penetration coefficient, is applied onto the lesion, excess material is removed, and the material is light cured. The manufacturer recommends applying a second layer of the infiltrant, followed by additional light curing.”

In sum according to the company, Icon provides an innovative option for treatment of smooth surface and proximal carious lesions because: “Instead of taking a “wait and see” approach, Icon can arrest the progress of early enamel lesions up to the first third of dentin – in one simple procedure, without unnecessary loss of healthy tooth structure!”

Icon also offers a revolutionary approach to the cosmetic treatment of carious white spot lesions. Lesions infiltrated by Icon take on the appearance of the surrounding healthy enamel. This provides a highly esthetic alternative to micro-abrasion and restorative treatments of cariogenic white spots.

Any thoughts?

Posted in Cosmetic Dentistry