Nobody anticipates using a cavity drilled and filled with a dentist. Now there’s an alternate: an antimicrobial liquid that may be brushed on cavities to prevent tooth decay – painlessly.

The liquid is called silver diamine fluoride, or S.D.F. It’s been utilized for decades in Japan, but it’s been accessible in america, within the manufacturer Advantage Arrest, for just about 12 months.

The meals and Drug Administration cleared silver diamine fluoride for usage as being a tooth desensitizer for adults 21 and older. But studies show it might halt the continuing development of cavities and stop them, and dentists are increasingly utilizing it off-label for all those purposes.

“The upside, the truly great one, is you don’t have to drill so you don’t need an injection,” said Dr. Margherita Fontana, a professor of cariology at the University of Michigan.

Silver diamine fluoride has already been used in countless dental practices. Medicaid patients in Oregon are getting the treatment, and at least 18 dental schools have started teaching the next generation of pediatric dentists how to use it.

Dr. Richard Niederman, the chairman from the epidemiology and health promotion department at the Nyc University College of Dentistry, said, “Being capable to paint it on in A few seconds without any noise, no drilling, is much better, faster, cheaper.”

“I would encourage parents to request it,” he added. “It’s less trauma for your kid.”

The primary downside is aesthetic: Silver diamine fluoride blackens the brownish decay on the tooth. That won’t matter on the back molar or a baby tooth that will fall out, but some people are likely to be deterred from the prospect of a dark right an apparent tooth.

Until more insurers buy it, patients must also cover the fee. Still, it’s comparatively cheap. Dr. Michelle Urschel, an anesthesiologist, was very happy to pay $25 to have Dr. Jeanette MacLean, a pediatric dentist in Glendale, Ariz., paint on the cavity that her son Knox, 4, had recently developed.

A cavity which in fact had to be drilled cost $151. The liquid “was very reasonable,” Dr. Urschel said.

The noninvasive treatment might be suitable for the indigent, elderly care residents among others who’ve trouble finding care. And lots of anxious dental patients want to dodge the drill.

However the liquid might be especially ideal for children. Nearly 25 % of 2- to 5-year-olds have cavities, in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some preschoolers with severe cavities has to be treated in the hospital under general anesthesia, eventhough it may pose risks to the developing brain.

“S.D.F. provides for us a way to decrease the number of toddlers with cavities coming to the O.R.,” said Dr. Arwa Owais, an associate professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of Iowa.

Dr. Laurence Hyacinthe, a pediatric dentist in Harlem, used silver diamine fluoride on eight uncooperative children whose parents desired to delay a vacation to the operating room.

Dr. MacLean said, “People assume that parents will reject it due to poor aesthetics.” But “if it means preventing a child from the need to be sedated or having their tooth drilled and filled, there are lots of parents who choose S.D.F.,” she added.

Alejandra Bujeiro, 32, was delighted that her 3-year-old daughter, Natalia, didn’t need two cavities filled in the rear of her mouth. Instead Dr. Eyal Simchi, a pediatric dentist in Elmwood Park, N.J., brushed silver diamine fluoride on the decay.

Two front teeth, however, were drilled. Next time, Ms. Bujeiro said, she’d choose silver diamine fluoride. “I would utilize it in baby teeth even though it’s in the front,” she said. As for the discoloration? “You can’t see it a lot of.”

Silver diamine fluoride has another advantage over traditional treatment: It kills the bacteria that cause decay. An extra treatment applied six to 18 months as soon as the first markedly arrests cavities, research indicates.

“S.D.F. cuts down on the incidence of latest caries and continuing development of current caries by about Eighty percent,” said Dr. Niederman, who’s updating an evidence review of silver diamine fluoride published in 2009.

Fillings, by contrast, usually do not cure a verbal infection.

“There’s nothing which goes on in an operating room that treats the actual problem,” said Dr. Peter Milgrom, a professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of Washington who had previously been instrumental in receiving F.D.A. clearance for silver diamine fluoride and possesses a financial stake in Advantage Arrest.

That’s why some children will need to have dental emergency under anesthesia twice.

Transmissions also cause acne, but a “dermatologist doesn’t please take a scalpel and take off your pimples,” said Dr. Jason Hirsch, a pediatric dentist in Royal Palm Beach, Fla. Yet “that’s how dentistry has approached cavities.” Dr. Hirsch has a Facebook page called SDF Action, where dentists can discuss individual cases.
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