Evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of caries removal by chemo-mechanical method versus Atraumatic Restorative Technique (ART) : An in-vitro experimental study

Objectives: To compare the time required to remove dentin (Efficiency) using conventional and Brix 3000 caries removal methods.
To compare the effectiveness of caries removal using caries indicator dye (Efficacy) in conventional and Brix 3000 caries removal methods.
Methods: A total of 50 extracted human permanent molars with Class I cavity and ICDAS score 5 were selected. Each tooth was sectioned from the centre of the carious lesion to obtained equal sized caries and were randomly assigned to two groups (n=25); Group I: ART group and Group II: Chemo-mechanical removal (BRIX-3000). The time taken and number of applications to fully remove the caries were noted and the efficacy of removal in both the groups was determined by the caries indicator dye and scored according to the scoring criteria by Ericson et al.
Data was analysed using SPSS (IBM version 23.0). Descriptive statistics (mean and SD/ median and IQR) were computed. To compare the caries removal scores and time taken of two groups, Independent t test/ Mann-Whitney U test were applied. The level of significance was kept at <0.05.
Results: In the present study, time taken and no. of application required for caries removal observed that Brix 3000 [4.69 (1.22)] was more efficient than ART [5.89 (1.27)] (p < 0.05). However, there was no difference in the effectiveness of the caries removal between two groups (p > 0.05).
Conclusions: The results of the study concluded that Brix 3000 was more efficient than conventional ART. However, both the techniques are effective in terms of caries removal.