Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Feb;51(2):266-277.
doi: 10.18502/ijph.v51i2.8680.

The Effectiveness of Fluoride Varnish and Fissure Sealant in Elementary School Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Dariush Jafarzadeh  1 , Ramin Rezapour  2 , Teimour Abbasi  3 , Jafar Sadegh Tabrizi  2 , Maryam Zeinolabedini  4 , Assef Khalili  4 , Mahmood Yousefi  1
Affiliations
Review

The Effectiveness of Fluoride Varnish and Fissure Sealant in Elementary School Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Dariush Jafarzadeh et al. Iran J Public Health. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Highly necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive interventions to prioritize them at the community level. We aimed to systematically investigate the related studies on the effects of fluoride varnish and fissure sealant on dental caries in 6-12 children.

Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and Scopus databases using Fluoride Varnish, Fissure Sealant, Caries, and Oral Health keywords. The timeframe selected to search for articles is from 2000 to Dec 2020. CMA software: 2 (Comprehensive Meta-Analysis) was used to perform the meta-analysis. The intervention groups in this study were fluoride varnish and fissure sealants, each of them compared to the control groups.

Results: We included nine studies. In the intervention group 84,380 and control group 11,254 individuals were studied. Eight of the studies were Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT) and Field RCT, and two was non-RCT. In the overall Fluoride Varnish efficacy study, 4 were fully effective, 1 was ineffective, and all 4 were completely effective for Fissure Sealant. There was a significant difference between decayed, missing, and filled permanent teeth (DMFT) and decayed, missing, and filled primary teeth (dmft) indices in both interventions and comparison groups. Moreover, the mean difference of DMFT for Fluoride Varnish and Fissure Sealant in the intervention and control groups were -0.55 and -0.29, respectively (P=0.00).

Conclusion: Due to the efficacy of fissure sealant and fluoride varnish in preventing dental caries in children aged 6-12 yr, these interventions can be considered as health priorities of societies and health systems interventions in countries.

Keywords: Fissure sealant; Fluoride varnish; Meta-analysis; Oral health; Systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1:
Flow chart of the screening and study selection process
Fig. 2:
Fig. 2:
Mean difference of DMFT index between intervention group and post-intervention comparison of fluoride varnish in children based on random model with 95% confidence factor
Fig. 3:
Fig. 3:
Mean difference of DMFT index between intervention group and comparison after fissure sealant intervention in children based on random model with 95% confidence factor
Fig. 4:
Fig. 4:
Mean difference of dmft index between intervention group and comparison after fissure sealant intervention in children based on random model with 95% confidence factor
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Bajomo A, Rudolph M, Ogunbodede E. (2004). Dental caries in six, 12 and 15 year old Venda children in South Africa. East Afr Med J, 81 (5):236–43. - PubMed
    1. Nurelhuda NM, Trovik TA, Ali RW, Ahmed MF. (2009). Oral health status of 12-year-old school children in Khartoum state, the Sudan; a school-based survey. BMC Oral Health, 9:15. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hopcraft M, Morgan M, Satur J, Wright F. (2008). Dental service provision in Victorian residential aged care facilities. Aust Dent J, 53 (3):239–45. - PubMed
    1. Carvalho JC, Van Nieuwenhuysen JP, D’Hoore W. (2001). The decline in dental caries among Belgian children between 1983 and 1998. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol, 29 (1):55–61. - PubMed
    1. Locker D. (2000). Deprivation and oral health: a review. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol, 28 (3):161–9. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources