When I opened Wellness Dental, I knew I wanted to adopt and practice CAMBRA (Caries Management By Risk Assessment). I’ve really embraced the CAMBRA philosophy and truly believe providing this service will make a long-term impact on my patients’ oral health.
Once I complete an initial comprehensive exam, I can perform the caries risk assessment (based on risk factors and clinical findings) to determine my patient’s cavity risk level. From there, I can form an individualized treatment plan for my patient.
The recommendations I make are based on CAMBRA guidelines published by the American Dental Association (please see the table below). These guidelines help us make recommendations on which treatments to prescribe, how frequently to schedule a patient’s recall visits, how frequently to obtain diagnostic radiographs, and what kind of home care routine to recommend. In this way, I can come up with a plan that addresses my patients’ specific oral health issues and encourage good hygiene habits such as brushing, flossing, or using other dental aides like a Water-Pik or interdental brushes.
A recent study conducted at the University of California, San Francisco on CAMBRA revealed a 20% reduction in new cavities over time in patients when their practitioner implemented a CAMBRA protocol (Featherstone et al, 2015). That means that with proper implementation a patient can change their risk level and decrease their chance of developing cavities. This is exciting news!
Featherstone J, White J, Hoover C, Rapozo-Hilo M, Weintraub J, Wilson R, Zhan L, Gansky S. A. A Randomized Clinical Trial of anticaries therapies targeted according to risk assessment. Caries Res. 2012;46(2):118-129