What Is SDF?
SDF, or silver diamine fluoride, is a new cavity treatment that recently got approval for use in the United States. It’s simple, it’s cheap, and it’s effective, but it does come with downsides that mean traditional cavity fillings aren’t completely obsolete.
SDF is a chemical that a dentist can drip onto a tooth after they clean it and allow it to dry. Silver is a natural antibiotic, so after two minutes it’s able to kill all the bacteria in a cavity and help protect it against future bacteria invasions. At the same time, the fluoride in SDF protects the minerals in enamel from dissolving, something that the fluoride in tap water and in toothpaste also helps with.
Unfortunately, there is one very noticeable problem with SDF: the silver stains the infected cavity black. There are ways to reduce the stain’s intensity, but not to get rid of it completely. The chemical also stains skin and gums brown, but this stain fades within a few weeks.
That’s why many dentists prefer to use SDF on baby teeth since any staining obviously won’t be for life when the tooth will eventually fall out. Seniors are another group who don’t have to worry so much about the side effect since age makes it more important to keep your original teeth and can make it harder to sit through a regular filling.
As a new treatment, many insurance plans are slow to accept SDF as a cheap and simple alternative to a regular filling, and the only Medicare program to cover it right now is in Oregon. Still, SDF is safe for kids, it’s painless, and it’s quick, so despite the staining, it’s quickly catching on. And since it’s cheap, many parents are willing to foot the bill even without insurance coverage.
For that matter, you can add an SDF treatment to a regular filling since the stain makes it easier for the dentist to see what parts of the tooth need drilling and the area under the filling will be free of bacteria.
SDF doesn’t completely remove the need for fillings, but it can certainly help either as an alternative or as an addition to a regular filling. The treatment has a lot of good things going for it, and it’s not hard to see why it’s catching on in children’s dentistry.