Silver Diamine Fluoride Treatments in Clear Lake

SDF is completely non-invasive, which means there is no need for needles, dental drills or any other intimidating equipment. Your child will not feel any fear or discomfort during treatment, Dr. Brock will simply paint on the SDF compound and cover it with a fluoride varnish. This treatment is also much faster and more affordable than a filling at our Clear Lake office.
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SDF can’t be used to treat deep cavities, which may require different options for treatment. This makes it an ideal procedure if your child has a cavity in a baby tooth that will fall out naturally in a year or two. It can also be used to help delay treatment until a more appropriate age if your child is under 2 years old.

SDF also has the ability to decrease sensitivity in teeth. If there is no decay, yet your child's tooth is very sensitive to temperature, SDF can help constrict tubes in the enamel to help decrease sensitivity, while not staining the tooth.

If your child has a few minor cavities in their baby teeth and Dr. Brock believes that they can be treated with SDF rather than fillings, this may be a good treatment option. SDF treatment may also be a good option for very young kids with cavities. It can be used as a “stop-gap” solution until your child is old enough to receive a filling or dental crown.

SDF is usually applied to teeth with cavities once per year. However, the fluoride varnish that is used on top of the SDF treatment may need to be reapplied up to four times per year. At your child’s appointment in Clear Lake, Dr. Brock will explain this process in further detail, so contact us now to get started and see if SDF is right for your child.

Silber Diamine Fluoride (SDF) lasts anywhere from 3 to 12 months. About a month after the first application of SDF, Dr. Brock will reassess the tooth to determine if another layer is necessary. After this, SDF can be routinely applied based on the child’s cavity risk. Children with moderate risk should have SDF applied twice a year while high-risk children can have it applied up to 4 times per year for best results.

SDF is a great minimally invasive and painless option to prevent and treat early-stage tooth decay in children with special needs, dental anxiety, children with a high cavity risk, children with small to moderate-sized cavities in the teeth, very young children, and when children have multiple cavities, and when cavities are located in the back teeth.

SDF enables us to treat young and anxious patients who find it difficult to sit for an appointment and who are distressed by dental drills and needles to treat tooth decay without any invasive tools. When patients have many cavities, SDF poses an alternative to extensive drilling and fillings, as we can treat multiple teeth at once.

However, SDF is not a good option for the front teeth if your child cares about having white teeth. This treatment also may not be the best option when decay has affected a permanent tooth or a cavity is very large or spread to the deeper layers of the tooth. Children with metal allergies, interproximal cavities, and severely damaged teeth are not good candidates.

Another great advantage of SDF is that we can treat up to 8 teeth at once with just a single drop. This is beneficial for children with a lot of cavities, as extensive drilling can be time-consuming, uncomfortable, and stressful for children. 

SDF, compared to drilling to treat tooth decay, is painless, takes less than a minute, doesn’t involve the use of invasive tools like drills, anesthetic, or needles, is simple, and is very cost-effective.

SDF is incredibly easy and fast to apply, so it only takes about 1 to 3 minutes. If you have a very young and fussy child who struggles to cooperate, we can apply this even faster, within a minute. 

We simply remove moisture from the tooth, then paint on the SDF solution, rub it in for about a minute, dry the tooth, and sometimes we cure it with UV light so it can penetrate deeper into the tooth. 

Your child will be instructed to avoid rinsing their mouth or eating right away, as SDF works best when it has 30 minutes to an hour to be absorbed by the tooth. Contact us at Big Picture Pediatric Dentistry to schedule a consultation with Dr. Jason Brock.