The impact of the ART approach (Paperback)

Atraumatic Restorative Treatment, also known as "Filling-without- Drilling" increased restorative care in a South African academic dental outreach service for impoverished communities. The reason for this change was ascribed to its patient friendly nature, which in turn gave incentive to dentists to provide ART more frequently. However, ART introduction into South African public oral health service did not produce the same results. It was found that factors such as high workload of dentists inhibited the use of ART. It is concluded that a thorough situation analysis should precede the introduction of the ART approach into a public oral health service system, particularly in systems with a continuous lack of resources. If such an analysis identifies potential inhibiting factors for an increase in restorative care and these factors cannot be adequately controlled, it is unlikely that the introduction of ART will yield optimal results.