[Effectiveness of fissure sealants in child population at high risk of caries]

OBJECTIVES

To asses the effectiveness of fissure sealants in a high risk infant population and to evaluate the criteria to determine when to apply them.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study.

SETTING

Primary care.

PARTICIPANTS

607 scholars that are included at the age of 6 years and followed for 4,5 years.Intervention. We have defined three groups. Groups I and II were included in a dental preventive program with and without fissure sealants in the first permanent molars, respectively, and group III received no preventive measures at all.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS

The dental explorations according to WHO recommendations were conducted before entering the study, at the age of six years, after the fissure sealant were applied, at the age of eight years and finally 4.5 years after the beginning.

RESULTS

After 4.5 years group I had a CAOD index of 0.59, group II 0.79 and group III 1.52 (P<.001). Group III has 2.57 times greater risk the group I of suffering caries in the permanent teeth.

CONCLUSIONS

The application of occlusive fissure sealant in the first permanent molar of an infant high risk population has a protective effect on dental caries. Therefore occlusive fissure sealant should be offered to all scholars because those without neither the preventive program nor occlusive fissure sealant had a significantly higher risk of caries.

[Incidence of dental caries in a child population from Mostoles: evaluation of a preventive program after 2 years]

OBJECTIVE

To know the efficacy and effectivity od dental health program after 2 years.

DESIGN

The study of prospective cohorts not aleatorized.

POPULATION AND METHODS

The exposed cohort is composed of 583 school children, 296 girls and 287 boys, the non-exposed cohort is composed of 261 school children, 132 girls and 129 boys. We carried out and odontological exploration following the criteria of the WHO the preventive measures we carried out are health education, weekly mouthrinse of NaFl at 0.2%, occlusive sealant in the first permanent molar and external application fluorine gel. We measured and compared the different indexes of tooth decay and sociodemographic variables between both cohorts, the statistic meaning has been determined through the U est of Mann Whitney.

RESULTS

We have found statistically significant differences between both cohorts in the indexes of decay in the exposed cohorts. The indexes of decay in the exposed cohort being DMFT: 0.31; DMFM (first permanent molar): 0.31; DMFS: 0.4. And in the non-exposed cohort DMFT: 0.81; DMFM: 0.81; DMFS; 1.09. Existing an epidemiological association between the preventive program and the prevention of dental decay with a relative risk of 0.24 (95% CI, 0.17-0.33) and the prevention fraction of 76.3% (95% CI, 67-83).

CONCLUSIONS

The preventive program after two years elapsed is effective and has a clear protector effect.