IADR Abstract Archives
Arrest of Atypical Carious Lesions in Primary Teeth Using 38% Silver Fluoride
Objectives: To investigate whether there is a difference in the odds of caries arrest between typical (TL) and atypical (AL) carious lesions in primary teeth at 12m.
Methods: This was a secondary analysis of a subgroup of Cambodian children who participated in a clinical trial examining the efficacy of 38% silver fluoride (AgF) therapies. Carious lesions received an application of silver fluoride therapy at baseline and at the 6m follow-up. Lesions were examined at 12m. An arrested lesion was defined as one which was black in colour, felt hard on probing (ball-ended probe) or had not progressed to a more severe ICDAS code. The EAPD index for hypomineralisation was used to identify teeth which had atypical lesions. Differences in the proportion of teeth with arrested TL or AL were examined using the chi-squared test. A two-level model was used to allow for the clustering effect of multiple carious teeth that might occur within one individual. The first level of the model included individual level variables and the second level included tooth level effects
Results: 205 participants entered the study and 156 (73.1%) were examined at 12 m (48.3% female). The mean dmfs was 20.5 (SD14.7) and 78.5% of participants had one or more teeth with an atypical carious lesion. A significantly lower proportion of AL teeth were arrested than teeth with TL (59.1% vs 79.0%; P-value = <0.001). There was no significant difference in caries arrest with respect to type of lesion once lesion size, tooth type, baseline plaque scores, and caries risk were taken into account in multivariate modelling (OR 0.80; 95% CI 0.49, 1.29).
Conclusions: Although the proportion of teeth with AL that arrested was lower than the proportion of TL, the differences in observed arrest rate for AL can be accounted for by other clinical characteristics.
Methods: This was a secondary analysis of a subgroup of Cambodian children who participated in a clinical trial examining the efficacy of 38% silver fluoride (AgF) therapies. Carious lesions received an application of silver fluoride therapy at baseline and at the 6m follow-up. Lesions were examined at 12m. An arrested lesion was defined as one which was black in colour, felt hard on probing (ball-ended probe) or had not progressed to a more severe ICDAS code. The EAPD index for hypomineralisation was used to identify teeth which had atypical lesions. Differences in the proportion of teeth with arrested TL or AL were examined using the chi-squared test. A two-level model was used to allow for the clustering effect of multiple carious teeth that might occur within one individual. The first level of the model included individual level variables and the second level included tooth level effects
Results: 205 participants entered the study and 156 (73.1%) were examined at 12 m (48.3% female). The mean dmfs was 20.5 (SD14.7) and 78.5% of participants had one or more teeth with an atypical carious lesion. A significantly lower proportion of AL teeth were arrested than teeth with TL (59.1% vs 79.0%; P-value = <0.001). There was no significant difference in caries arrest with respect to type of lesion once lesion size, tooth type, baseline plaque scores, and caries risk were taken into account in multivariate modelling (OR 0.80; 95% CI 0.49, 1.29).
Conclusions: Although the proportion of teeth with AL that arrested was lower than the proportion of TL, the differences in observed arrest rate for AL can be accounted for by other clinical characteristics.