Conservative

The Conservative dentisty is a branch of restorative dentistry that deals with the care of teeth affected by carious processes, procedures for the elimination of caries and those related to the closure of the cavities resulting from the elimination of the enamel and carious dentin, through the use of appropriate materials.

Caries can be superficial or deep. In the first case, only the dentin and the enamel affected by the caries are removed, clogging the tooth with appropriate materials (silver or composite amalgam). The use of silver amalgams (due to the mercury content) has now been replaced by composite materials which, due to their adhesive characteristics, allow a less extensive preparation of the cavity cavity compared to the use of amalgam which required cavities with particular characteristics because they were retentive. In deep caries there may be an interest in the pulp of the tooth, which also contains the nerve fibers, and then the root canal treatment also called devitalization.

The term conservative indicates the goal of such treatments, that is to keep the teeth otherwise destroyed by caries. Modern conservative dentistry is based on the concept of minimal invasiveness, with the removal of only the carious tissue and its replacement with a restorative material, which is directly linked to healthy tissue. In fact, in recent years silver amalgams (which required a retentive preparation, therefore extended) have been almost abandoned in favor of composites The isolation of the operating field is carried out through the rubber dam, an 
indispensable tool , especially if they use adhesive techniques that tolerate very little the presence of saliva.
The dam is a thin sheet of rubber on which holes are made, through which the teeth to be treated are made to pass; the sheet is stabilized by one or more hooks and possibly by ligatures with dental floss. Outside the oral cavity, the dam is supported by a metal or plastic arc that holds it taut.

The advantages of using the dam are:

- No moisture 
- Easy access 
- Better visibility 
- Safety (the patient can not ingest toxic substances or foreign bodies) 
- Comfort for both the operator and the patient 
- Protection of soft tissue (from trauma and irritants)

The photopolymerizable composites, after their application, are illuminated with a light of a particular wavelength to make the monomers into polymers. This is made possible by a molecule that acts as a photoactivator. Currently, programmable lamps are used, in order to perform a gradual polymerization (soft start curing), such as LED lamps and plasma lamps.