Oral Rehabilitation of 3 yrs Old Patient Presenting Early Childhood Caries (ECC)

Background: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a diet induced disease characterized by early onset and rapid progression. It is prevalent in developing countries and it implies serious consequences for the child`s quality of life.

In many cases, destruction of the whole crown occurs, therefore the clinician decides to extract the concerned tooth. The premature loss of carious primary teeth may affect the speech, decrease masticatory efficiency and may also cause psychological problem for the child if esthetics are compromised. For these reasons the oral rehabilitation for a child with ECC is mandatory.

Many restorative options exist for primary teeth. The choice of restorative technique depends upon the operator preferences, esthetic demands by the parents and child’s behavior.

Methods: This poster documents the oral rehabilitation of 3 years old patient who presents severe ECC. It is a case of severely mutilated maxillary incisors. Dental treatment was done under general anesthesia as follows: extraction of upper incisors, performance of anterior esthetic fixed appliance, placement of stainless steel crowns to restore primary molars with previous pulpotomy treatment when necessary, restoration with composite resin for canines.

Result: The preventive, psychological, esthetic and curative measures of the young child with severe ECC was found successful after 4 months of follow up. This result encourages the clinicians to do the appropriate treatment to reestablish the oral functions and improve the child`s psycho-social development.

Conclusion: The deciduous caries among preschool children is a severe problem. Enhancement of preventive measure at early age should be emphasized by parents and dental health professionals. Furthermore, the caries prevalence is associated with children’s age, oral health habits, feeding habits and parents education level.