Over the past 30 years there has been an increase in the use of tooth-coloured composite resin filing materials as an alternative to amalgam for restoring posterior teeth. Recent technical and material developments have improved the limitations of the early materials which were more likely to fail because of shrinkage, loss of form poor wear characteristics and colour stability. The aim of this review was to evaluate the effects of replacement (with resin composite) versus repair (with resin composite) in the management of defective resin composite dental restorations in permanent molar and premolar teeth.
Searches were conducted in the Cochrane Oral Health Group’s Trials Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Medline, Embase, BIOSIS, Web of Science and the OpenGrey databases. In addition researchers, experts and organisations known to be involved in this field were contacted in order to trace unpublished or ongoing studies. Randomised controlled trials (including split-mouth studies), involving replacement and repair of resin composite restorations in adults with a defective restoration in a molar or premolar tooth/teeth were to be included. Study selection and assessment was conducted independently by two reviewers.
- The search strategy retrieved 298 potentially eligible studies, after de-duplication. After examination of the titles and abstracts, full texts of potentially relevant studies were retrieved but none of the retrieved studies met the inclusion criteria of the review.
The authors concluded
There are no published randomised controlled trials relevant to this review question. There is therefore a need for methodologically sound randomised controlled trials that are reported according to the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. Further research also needs to explore qualitatively the views of patients on repairing versus replacement and investigate themes around pain, anxiety and distress, time and costs.
Links
Sharif MO, Catleugh M, Merry A, Tickle M, Dunne SM, Brunton P, Aggarwal VR, Chong LY. Replacement versus repair of defective restorations in adults: resin composite. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD005971. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005971.pub3.
Sharif MO, Merry A, Catleugh M, Tickle M, Brunton P, Dunne SM, Aggarwal VR, Chong LY. Replacement versus repair of defective restorations in adults: amalgam. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD005970. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005970.pub3.
