Caries prevention in older adults

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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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Topical fluorides for early childhood caries

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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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White spot lesions and masking with resin infiltration

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This review of the long-term efficacy of resin infiltration therapy for white sport lesions with regard to aesthetic appearance and long-term stability included 11 studies 9 of which were RCTs. The findings suggest a benefit but the amount of evidence is limited.

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Top Dental Elf Blogs: Jan – Mar 2020

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Our most popular blogs from January, February and March 2020 were about the FiCTION trial, local anaesthesia and factors associated with third molar surgical difficulty.

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Caries prevention in children: Fluoride varnishes or sealants?

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11 RCTs were included in this Cochrane review which looked at the relative effectiveness of fissure sealants compared with fluoride varnishes for the prevention of caries in the occlusal surfaces of permanent teeth.

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Oral health promotion programmes for adolescents

Accessing online mental health sites is becoming easier due to the availability of laptops and smart phones, meaning teenagers can be connected wherever they are

This review of the effectiveness of health promotion interventions on oral health knowledge, behaviour and status of healthy adolescents included 28 programmes reported in 37 publications.

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Caries management in children. The FiCTION trial

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The FiCTION trail compared 3 caries management strategies for dentinal caries in primary teeth finding no evidence of a difference between the approaches. This emphasises the importance of primary prevention of caries to avoid dental caries althogther.

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White spot lesions: Topical fluoride for prevention during fixed orthodontic treatment

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This Cochrane review update evaluates whether topical fluoride reduces the proportion of orthodontic patients with new demineralised lesions (white spot lesions). In included 10 studies finding some low certainty evidence that some topical fluorides reduced white spot lesions.

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Silver diamine fluoride for caries management?

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This umbrella review of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) for the management of carious lesions in children and adults included 11 systematic reviews reporting on 30 unique primary studies. A consistent and growing body of research supports supports SDF’s effectiveness for arresting coronal carious lesions in the primary dentition and arresting and preventing root carious lesions in older adults.

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White spot lesion prevention during orthodontic treatment

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This review of the efficacy of preventive interventions against the development of white spot lesions (WSLs) during fixed appliance orthodontic treatment included 23 RCTs tha majority of which were at high risk of bias. The findings suggest some benefit from sealants and fluoride varnishes but more high quality research is neeeded.

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