Enamel fluorosis with different severity results in displeasing discolorations that jeopardizes the esthetic appearance and self-esteem of the patient. The most common method to treat this dental status is microabrasion. Resin infiltration technique is a new conservative method to prevent progression of white spot enamel lesions due to caries. The object of this clinical study was to evaluate the effect of this new method on enamel fluorosis.
Methods:
In this clinical study, 60 fluorosed teeth in different patients were included and randomly divided into two groups of 30 as follows: Group 1 (control): no treatment, Group 2: treatment of enamel fluorosis with resin infiltration technique. The inclusion criteria were teeth without caries or cavity. Baseline photographs were taken with a professional photography camera (Canon EOS 550D). Isolation of the teeth was done with liquidam. After cleaning the teeth, 15% HCL gel (Icon Etch, DMG, Germany) was applied according to the manufacturing instructions followed by the application of ethanol (to dry the etched area) and resin infiltrant to penetrate into the etched lesion. After light curing the resin and polishing the teeth, final photographs were taken. The baseline and final photographs were shown by computer to three judges to rate the appearance of the teeth according to a visual analog scale.
Results:
The preliminary results of this study on 20 teeth (10 teeth in each group) according to the judges revealed that the shade improvement was significant with resin infiltration technique.
Conclusions:
Resin infiltration technique can be a conservative and effective method to treat the fluorosed enamel.