International Journal of Advanced Paediatric Dentistry

CARIES REMINERALIZATION AND ARRESTING EFFECT IN CHILDREN BY PROFESSIONALLY APPLIED FLUORIDE TREATMENT – A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

SK Srinath * and Chandralekha

srinath.krishnappa@yahoo.com

Fluoride therapy, Clinical trials, Remineralising effect.

Background: As a low-cost and easily operated treatment, the use of professionally applied topical fluoride was approved for preventing dental caries and remineralising early enamel caries or white spot lesions. It is also used to arrest dentine caries. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical efficacy of professional fluoride therapy in remineralizing and arresting caries in children. Method: A systematic search of publications from 2000 to 2016 was conducted using four databases: PubMed. The key words used were “fluoride” AND “remineralization”. The title and abstract of initially identified publications were screened. Clinical trials about home-use fluorides, case reports, reviews, non-English articles and irrelevant studies were excluded. The full texts of the remaining papers were retrieved. Manual screening was conducted on the bibliographies of the remaining papers to identify relevant articles. Results: A total of 1346 papers were found, and 11 studies were included in this review. 3 studies were randomized control trials and 8 were in vitro studies that investigated the remineralising effect on enamel and dentinal caries using fluoride varnish and casein phosphopeptide (CPP)- Amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) , GC tooth mousse and sodium fluoride, stannous fluoride, calcium sucrose phosphate, sliver fluoride , silver nitrate and potassium fluoride. 10 studies reported an arresting effect and remineralization of white spot lesions on enamel and dentine caries using fluoride varnish, or silver fluoride followed by the CPP-ACPF. One study showed that stannous fluoride has highest potential for remineralization compared to CCP-ACPF. Another study showed that clinpro TM XT varnish released consistently and substantially more fluoride that fluorprotector and fluoritop SR. Conclusion: Professionally applied fluoride varnish can remineralise early enamel caries and CPP-ACPF remineralizing effect on white spot lesion when applied constantly over a period of 12 months.