TY - JOUR

T1 - Caries-preventive effectiveness of fluoride varnish as adjunct to oral health promotion and supervised tooth brushing in preschool children

T2 - a double-blind randomized controlled trial

AU - Agouropoulos, A

AU - Twetman, S

AU - Pandis, N

AU - Kavvadia, K

AU - Papagiannoulis, L

N1 - Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect of biannual fluoride varnish applications in preschool children as an adjunct to school-based oral health promotion and supervised tooth brushing with 1000ppm fluoride toothpaste.METHODS: 424 preschool children, 2-5 year of age, from 10 different pre schools in Athens were invited to this double-blind randomized controlled trial and 328 children completed the 2-year programme. All children received oral health education with hygiene instructions twice yearly and attended supervised tooth brushing once daily. The test group was treated with fluoride varnish (0.9% diflurosilane) biannually while the control group had placebo applications. The primary endpoints were caries prevalence and increment; secondary outcomes were gingival health, mutans streptococci growth and salivary buffer capacity.RESULTS: The groups were balanced at baseline and no significant differences in caries prevalence or increment were displayed between the groups after 1 and 2 years, respectively. There was a reduced number of new pre-cavitated enamel lesions during the second year of the study (p=0.05) but the decrease was not statistically significant. The secondary endpoints were unaffected by the varnish treatments.CONCLUSIONS: Under the present conditions, biannual fluoride varnish applications in preschool children did not show significant caries-preventive benefits when provided as an adjunct to school-based supervised tooth brushing with 1000ppm fluoride toothpaste.CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: In community based, caries prevention programmes, for high caries risk preschool children, a fluoride varnish may add little to caries prevention, when 1000ppm fluoride toothpaste is used daily.

AB - OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect of biannual fluoride varnish applications in preschool children as an adjunct to school-based oral health promotion and supervised tooth brushing with 1000ppm fluoride toothpaste.METHODS: 424 preschool children, 2-5 year of age, from 10 different pre schools in Athens were invited to this double-blind randomized controlled trial and 328 children completed the 2-year programme. All children received oral health education with hygiene instructions twice yearly and attended supervised tooth brushing once daily. The test group was treated with fluoride varnish (0.9% diflurosilane) biannually while the control group had placebo applications. The primary endpoints were caries prevalence and increment; secondary outcomes were gingival health, mutans streptococci growth and salivary buffer capacity.RESULTS: The groups were balanced at baseline and no significant differences in caries prevalence or increment were displayed between the groups after 1 and 2 years, respectively. There was a reduced number of new pre-cavitated enamel lesions during the second year of the study (p=0.05) but the decrease was not statistically significant. The secondary endpoints were unaffected by the varnish treatments.CONCLUSIONS: Under the present conditions, biannual fluoride varnish applications in preschool children did not show significant caries-preventive benefits when provided as an adjunct to school-based supervised tooth brushing with 1000ppm fluoride toothpaste.CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: In community based, caries prevention programmes, for high caries risk preschool children, a fluoride varnish may add little to caries prevention, when 1000ppm fluoride toothpaste is used daily.

U2 - 10.1016/j.jdent.2014.07.020

DO - 10.1016/j.jdent.2014.07.020

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25123352

VL - 42

SP - 1277

EP - 1283

JO - Journal of Dentistry

JF - Journal of Dentistry

SN - 0300-5712

IS - 10

ER -