We use basic Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) protocols involving only hand instruments with no need for local anaesthetic or drills. There is usually a lot of decay present. In permanent “adult” teeth we use a fluoride releasing material called glass ionomer cement (GIC) as both a filling material and a sealant for deep fissures on biting surfaces. For badly decayed adult teeth we extract.
We arrest the spread of decay in “baby” teeth using silver fluoride. We don’t extract these teeth even if heavily decayed as they rarely give trouble, and if extracted prematurely they can lead to crowding later.
All the children have a fluoride varnish placed on their teeth to help prevent decay.