This review of the effectiveness of professionally applied fluoride therapy in preventing and arresting dental caries in older adults aged 60 years or above included 7 studies. The findings suggest that 5% NaF varnish, 38% SDF solution, and 1.23% APF gel were effective in preventing root caries but the studies were varied in treatment protocols, intervention method and follow-up period so more research in needed.
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This review of the caries preventive effectiveness of topical fluorides in the primary dentition included 24 RCTs with 10 RCTs contributing to a network meta-analysis (NMA). While the NMA did allow a ranking of effectiveness the number of studies involved was small and 17 of the 24 studies were considered to be at high risk of bias.
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This review comparing the effectiveness of lasers and topical desensitising agent treatments for dentine hypersensitivity included 13 studies. None of the studies was at low risk of bias so the evidence is of low-quality and insufficient to draw any conclusions on the superiority of lasers or conventional topical desensitising agents.
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This review of professional topical fluoride application to prevent/reverse enamel white spot lesions during orthdontic treatment included 11 RCTs suggesting a reduction of in incidence of between 25–30% .
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This review looked at topical fluoride for remineralising or arresting caries. 17 RCTs were included and overall remineralised early enamel caries using % fluoride varnish = 63.6 % (95% CI; 36.0 to 91.2 %) and 38% silver diamine fluoride had an overall proportion of arrested dentine caries = 65.9% (95% CI; 41.2 to 90.7 %).
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The update of the 2002 Cochrane review of fluoride included 28 trials finding an average 28% reduction (95% CI; 19-36%) in decayed, missing and filled tooth surfaces. There is little information about adverse effects or how well children and young people were able to cope with the gel application.
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Sadly caries remains a significant public health problem across the world, particularly in children. The aim of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of caries treatment and prevention strategies in the Netherlands. The study was conducted alongside a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the effects of two caries prevention strategies compared with regular dental [read the full story…]
The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) have just launched a new guideline on caries prevention in children. The guideline replaces two existing guidelines; SIGN 47 on preventing dental caries in children at high caries risk and SIGN 83 on prevention and management of dental decay in the pre-school child. The guideline was developed using SIGN [read the full story…]
For those of you who like to listen to your information instead of reading it the American Dental Association have released a podcast to go with their update of the clinical recommendations for topical fluoride agents to prevent dental caries, which I covered in a blog on the 4th November. In the podcast Dr. Robert [read the full story…]
In 2006 the American Dental Association (ADA) published recommendations regarding professionally applied topical fluorides. An update of these guidelines has just been published. An executive summary is available from the Journal of the American Dental Association and the full report can be downloaded from the ADA – Centre for Evidence-based Dentistry (ADA-EBD) website (see links). [read the full story…]
