The acronym CAMBRA stands for “CAries Management By Risk Assessment”. CAMBRA is a method of assessing caries (cavity) risk and making dental treatment and restoration recommendations based on a patient’s caries risk.
Patients who are assessed as high risk are more likely to have failures of expensive dental work due to recurrent decay. The dentist performing CAMBRA will include treating the cavity-causing bacterial infection in addition to the restoration treatment plan based on the patient’s specific risk factors to reduce the risk of restoration or cosmetic failure due to recurrent decay.
Factors increasing risk of developing caries also may include, but are not limited to, high titers of cariogenic bacteria, poor oral hygiene, prolonged nursing (bottle or breast), poor family dental health, developmental or acquired enamel defects, genetic abnormality of teeth, many multi-surface restorations, chemotherapy or radiation therapy causing inadequate saliva flow, eating disorders, drug or alcohol abuse, irregular dental care, cariogenic diet with frequent snacking between meals plus acidic beverages, active orthodontic treatment, presence of exposed root surfaces, restoration overhangs and open margins, and physical or mental disability with inability or unavailability of performing proper oral health care.
Home oral hygiene care is the first priority. There are no magical solutions if this is not maintained. Products are available to assist in one’s care for caries prevention. These include:
- Flouride which has a long documented success in remineralizing carious lesions.
- Xylitol has also been demonstrated to have many positive benefits in caries treatment and potentiates the effects of fluoride when used in combination.
- pH + neutralizing products encourage the growth of healthy bacteria.