Effectiveness of Varnish in Caries Prevention in Children Attending Kindergarten

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of fluoride varnish in preventing caries in children attending kindergarten. Methods: In 2006 Duraphat varnish started being used as a caries preventive measure in children attending kindergarten K1 and K2 in all 6 regions of Kuwait. To evaluate effectiveness, a subset of these children is monitored for caries annually. Children are examined, and caries in primary and permanent teeth (non-cavitated and cavitated) and oral hygiene is recorded by 8 teams of trained examiners and recorders. Other information collected is child's gender, date of birth, grade, and if in a treatment program. Data is directly entered in a specially designed form in Epi-Info. Results are presented for the data collected at the 2-year examination in 2008 and were available for 674 children, 460 with Duraphat and 214 controls. At the start of the varnish applications the subjects' age ranged from 4 to 7 years, with a mean age of 5.8±0.6. Results: In permanent teeth, the mean difference in DMFT and DMFS between the control group and Duraphat was 0.142 and 0.138 respectively. Although not statistically significant, with only 4 applications, the Duraphat group were 1.15 times less like to have caries (95% CI 0.82 - 1.62). In primary teeth, the mean difference in decayed primary teeth between the control group and Duraphat was 1.76, this difference being statistically significant (p=0.048). Conclusion: In 2 years, although not statistically significantly, promising differences are seen between the Duraphat groups and the control group in a high caries prevalence kindergarten population.