Background: Conventional space maintainers in pediatric dentistry is a multistep, multi-visit process that involves
paramount of patient co-operation and is a difficult especially in young un-cooperative children, and children with
gag-reflex and children with special health care needs. Recent multiple case reports successfully describe 3D space
maintainers and its effective use in multiple clinical scenarios. The aim of this current scoping review is to discuss
the advances in terms of Computer aided design (CAD) and extent of use of 3D space maintainers and its use in
pediatric dentistry.
Methodolody: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science databases were evaluated with pre-defined search strategy
((((CAD) OR (CAM)) OR (3d printing))) AND (Space maintainer). Google Scholar and Research Gate were also
consulted with the search terms to include all the articles for this current scoping review.
Results: A total of 349 titles were screened rigorously by three independent evaluators and after duplicate
exclusion, removal of irrelevant titles, finally led to inclusion of 18 articles for the qualitative synthesis of data.
Conclusion: 3D space maintainers seem to be an effective option for pediatric patients with gag reflex and single
visit pediatric dentistry, however the amount of available literature is too sparse, well planned randomized control
studies need to be planned to evaluate various parameters such as comfort, longevity and failures etc. 3D Space
maintainers can be a game changer in single visit pediatric dentistry practice.
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