Local anesthesia is administered. Thanks to the potency of septicane it is not necessary to administer a mandibular block. The lesion is opened with a 556 cross cut fissure bur being careful to  preserve as much natural tooth structure as possible but without diminishing good visual access ( utilizing high powered magnification ). Once the soft tooth structure and decay is removed, the tooth is restored with a flowable composite ( shade A-3 ) and a putty translucent veneering layer is applied. If this lesion were not discovered and restored in a timely manner, the patient would most likely have gone through a period of pain followed by the necessity of  root canal therapy and a more expensive final restoration. And of course, if these further procedures were not successful, the tooth would be extracted. The patient would then be confronted with the  choice of either leaving the empty space or maybe pursuing implant therapy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     In the real world, many patients would unfortunately not pursue a timely visit to the dentist, experience the pain and finally have the tooth extracted with no replacement.