Caries prevention and treatment in early childhood: comparing strategies. A systematic review

OBJECTIVE: Early childhood caries is a common condition that poses a se-rious risk to children's health because it can progress quickly, resulting in pain, abscesses, and a general decline in health. As a result, in-vasive therapies are needed, which call for high-ly skilled personnel. This systematic review of the literature aims to identify the most recent and widely applied early childhood caries (ECC) prevention and treatment approaches. Only sub-stances that act topically and minimally invasive interventions were considered.MATERIALS AND METHODS: The database search was restricted to randomized clinical tri-als completed within the last five years, specif-ically those that examined the following proce-dures: sodium fluoride (NaF) varnish, alternative restorative technique (ART), nano-silver fluoride, silver diamine fluoride, and silver modified atrau-matic restorative treatment sealants (SMART).RESULTS: A total of 815 articles were found. After removing duplicates, 584 articles were in-cluded, and 567 of them were excluded due to not meeting the predefined inclusion criteria.CONCLUSIONS: Every method considered has been proven to be successful in halting the progression of ECC and is well-liked by patients, even those who are unwilling to cooperate, as well as by parents. The most common unfavor-able effect of SDF is irreversible black discolor-ation in treated tooth surfaces, but this is typi-cally not a problem. They are all low-cost, min-imally invasive techniques that might also be widely used in large communities and low socio-economic settings.