The effect of polymer burs on microbiological reduction of carious dentin in deciduous teeth: a systematic review

Abstract

Background. Polymer bur is a new technology that proposes to conserve the den7n that is capable of remineraliza/on. Aim: To conduct a quan+ta+ve systema+c review to evaluate the effect of polymer burs on the reduc3on of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus a"er den$n carious excava$on in deciduous teeth. Methods and Material: Two reviewers per--formed the database to iden/fy the relevant clinical papers. Only papers in English that compared polymer burs with other caries removal techniques with the microbiological as--pects as an outcome were included. Papers that evaluated only permanent teeth were ex--cluded. Risk of bias was also assessed. Individual study effect sizes were calculated using Cohen's d formula for the comparisons of microorganism reduc5on before and a&er carious excava&on. Results: The search resulted in 12 non--duplicated papers. A/er the revision, on--ly 2 were selected. The quan3ta3ve evalua3on demonstrated that polymer bur reduces mi--croorganism levels in carious den0n. The larger effect size observed was for Streptococcus mutans in the polymer bur technique (r=0.84; d=3.12), followed by Lactobacillus in the car--bide bur technique (r=0.83; d=3.03). Conclusion: Polymer burs promoted a significant re--duc$on of microorganism levels, mainly Streptococcus mutans in carious den,n.