Effectiveness of fluoride varnish four times a year in preventing caries in the primary dentition: A 2 year...

To test the effectiveness of fluoride varnish in preventing caries in early childhood in children at high risk of caries.

Randomized controlled trial.

504 participants, with mean age of 21 months at baseline randomly allocated into a test and a control group. 427 children remained in the study after two years.

Fluoride varnish applied four times a year, every three months. The intervention lasted for two years.

Dental status was recorded based on the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICADS).

Mean dmfs was similar in the control and test groups at baseline (1.0 and 1.2 respectively) but was significantly different (10.1 and 5.2, p ⟨ 0.001, ANOVA) at endpoint. The proportion caries free in the two groups was 40% and 69.4% after two years.

The application of fluoride varnish four times a year prevented the incidence and reduced the severity of caries in pre-school children.

DRKS00013980.