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Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Nov 21;18(1):36.
doi: 10.1186/s13005-022-00337-y.

Onlays/partial crowns versus full crowns in restoring posterior teeth: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Bingjie Wang  1 , Jiayan Fan  2 , Lutao Wang  2 , Bin Xu  2 , Liang Wang  2 , Luyi Chai  3
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Onlays/partial crowns versus full crowns in restoring posterior teeth: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Bingjie Wang et al. Head Face Med. .

Abstract

Background: Tooth-colored onlays and partial crowns for posterior teeth have been used increasingly in clinics. However, whether onlays/partial crowns could perform as well as full crowns in the posterior region was still not evaluated thoroughly.

Methods: A literature search was conducted without language restrictions in Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trial and Web of science until September 2021. RCTs, prospective and retrospective observational studies with a mean follow-up of 1 year were selected. Cochrane Collaboration's tool was adopted for quality assessment of the RCT. The quality of observational studies was evaluated following Newcastle-Ottawa scale. The random-effects and fixed-effects model were employed for meta-analysis.

Results: Four thousand two hundred fifty-seven articles were initially searched. Finally, one RCT was identified for quality assessment and five observational studies for qualitative synthesis and meta-analysis. The RCT was of unclear risk of bias while five observational studies were evaluated as low risk. The meta-analysis indicated no statistically significant difference in the survival between onlays/partial crowns and full crowns after 1 year (OR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.02-18.08; I2 = 57.0%; P = 0.127) and 3 years (OR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.20-2.17; I2 = 0.0%; P = 0.747). For the success, onlays/partial crowns performed as well as crowns (OR = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.20-1.72; I2 = 0.0%; P = 0.881) at 3 years. No significant difference of crown fracture existed between the two methods (RD = 0.00, 95% CI: - 0.03-0.03; I2 = 0.0%; P = 0.972).

Conclusions: Tooth-colored onlays/partial crowns performed as excellently as full crowns in posterior region in a short-term period. The conclusions should be further consolidated by RCTs with long-term follow-up.

Keywords: Crowns; Onlays; Partial crowns; Success; Survival.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared that they had no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The flowchart of the search strategy.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Risk of bias summary for the included RCT
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Comparison of onlays/partial crowns and crowns regarding the survival after 1 year
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Comparison of onlays/partial crowns and crowns regarding the survival after 3 years
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Comparison of onlays/partial crowns and crowns regarding the success after 3 years
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
RD of crown fracture for comparison of two restorative methods after 3-year survival
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
RD of crown fracture for comparison of two restorative methods after 3- year success
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Funnel plots of the included studies. A, 1-year survival; B, 3-year survival; C, 3-year success
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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