2019 Volume 40 Issue 2 Pages 162-168
The pharmacological approach is one method of managing behavior in special care dentistry, and is often used in cases where other approaches are difficult to use. In such cases, daily management of oral hygiene is also often difficult and so patients under the pharmacological approach are expected to have a high risk of caries. We report an assessment of caries risk using Caries Management by Risk Assessment （CAMBRA） in patients under the pharmacological approach. We applied CAMBRA to 30 such patients at the Osaka University Dental Hospital and related dental facilities, and classified caries risk as Low, Middle, High, or Extreme （referred to as group L, M, H, and E, respectively）. The average age of patients was 31.7 years （±11.3 years）. There were 2 patients in group L, 5 in group M, 14 in group H, and 9 in group E. Among the patients, 15 received caries treatment （caries treatment group；0 patients in groups L and M, 8 in group H, and 7 in group E）, whereas 15 received periodontal treatment and oral surgery （non-caries treatment group；2 patients in group L, 5 in group M, 6 in group H, and 2 in group E）. Caries risk was approximately two times higher in the caries treatment group （groups H and E） than in the non-caries treatment group. We compared treatment contents at the time of CAMBRA and the initial treatment after CAMBRA, and the results showed that non-caries treatment under the pharmacological approach was the main treatment in groups L and M even after CAMBRA. In groups H and E, 7 patients underwent dental treatment without the pharmacological approach or turned to a dental clinic. This evaluation clearly found a high risk of caries in most of the patients under the pharmacological approach.
