A Clinical Trial of 38% Silver Diamine Fluoride With Light Curing in Arresting Dentine Caries in Primary Teeth

This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of semi-annual application of 38% silver diamine fluoride (SDF) with and without light curing in arresting dentine caries in primary teeth.

Children aged 5-7 years with at least 1 active dentine carious lesion were randomly allocated into: Group 1 (38% SDF with light curing: applied SDF for 10 seconds and exposed to LED light for 20 seconds) and Group 2 (38% SDF without light curing: applied SDF for 10 seconds and isolated for 20 seconds). Both interventions were repeated every 6 months. At the baseline, demographic data, oral health-related behaviors and clinical parameters of the children were collected. The activity of carious lesion was assessed using the visual-tactile method and adverse effects, if any, were recorded at both 6-month and 12-month follow-up periods by the same examiner. Intention-to-treat analysis was employed to analyze the data.

At baseline, 40 children (218 lesions) and 37 children (261 lesions) were recruited into Group 1 and Group 2. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups in terms of demographic data, oral health-related behaviors, and clinical parameters of the children at baseline (P > .05). After 12 months, 66 out of 77 children (85.74%) remained in the study. There was no significant difference in caries arrest rate between Group 1 (74.8%) and Group 2 (69.0%) with P = .161.

The semi-annual application of 38% SDF with or without light curing is equally effective in arresting dentine carious lesions in primary teeth. The addition of light curing to SDF-treated teeth has no significant effect in arresting dental caries in primary teeth.