Preventive and Therapeutic Proximal Sealing: A 3.5-Year Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Follow-Up.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this split-mouth, randomized controlled clinical trial was to evaluate the efficacy of proximal sealing for avoiding the development of new caries lesions or arresting incipient caries lesions on the mesial surface of first permanent molars (6m) abutting lesions on the distal surface of second primary molars (05d) in children at high caries risk.

METHODS: A total of 61 children 8-10 years old were selected based on the caries status of the proximal sites of 05d and 6m. Children with caries on 05d and caries-free 6m were placed in the preventive sealing group and children with caries on both 05d and 6m in the therapeutic group. The children in each group had one 6m surface pair and in each pair one 6m surface was randomly allocated to receive a preventive or therapeutic sealing. Using a split-mouth design, the other 6m surface in the pair served as control.

RESULTS: After 3.5 years, standardized follow-up radiographs were obtained for the 45 children who remained. In the preventive sealing group, 4 out of 30 (13.3%) sealed and 16 out of 30 (53.3%) unsealed sound 6m surfaces had developed new caries lesions (p = 0.004, McNemar test). In the therapeutic sealing group, the progression of the carious lesions on 6m was observed in 3 out of 15 sealed (20.0%) and 8 out of 15 (53.3%) unsealed caries control surfaces (p = 0.06).

CONCLUSIONS: Preventive sealing on sound 6m surfaces abutting 05d lesions in children at high caries risk efficaciously prevents the development of caries lesions. Therapeutically sealing active non-cavitated caries lesions reduces the progression.