Abstract
Examine the effect of dental curing light and laser treatments applied after Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF) on dentin hardness in carious primary molars. This in-vitro study consisted of 30 extracted primary molars with caries extending into dentin without pulpal involvement. The collected teeth were randomly divided into three groups: group 1: received SDF then Sub-ablative low-energy of Er,Cr:YSGG laser, group 2: received SDF followed by application of curing light for 40 s, group 3: had SDF treatment only. In all groups, 38% Ag (NH3)2F SDF was used. Vickers hardness test was performed on sound dentin below carious lesion. Kruskal-Wallis Test was used to determine the mean difference in dentin hardness of the groups at 5% Significance level using SPSS software. Surface hardness of sound dentin below the carious lesion was statistically significantly higher in the laser + SDF group (891.24 ± 37.33 kgf/mm
) versus the two other groups (Light cure + SDF = 266.65 ± 90.81 kgf/mm
and SDF only = 117.91 ± 19.19 kgf/mm
) with p-value ≤ 0.001. Although Photopolymerization of SDF increases the surface hardness of sound dentin below the carious lesion, applying laser after SDF has the highest surface hardness due to the laser's sub-ablation of dentin.