Penn Dental Medicine dean Mark S. Wolff has been recognized for his research by the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) and American Association for Dental Research (AADR) with the 2020 IADR/AADR William J. Gies Award for clinical research.
Wolff and his coauthors received the award for their work, “Nonrestorative Treatments for Caries: Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis,” published by the Journal of Dental Research in October 2018.
The systematic review and network meta-analysis summarizes the available evidence on nonrestorative caries treatments for arresting or reversing noncavitated and cavitated carious lesions on primary and permanent teeth.
The study also reviews the evidence for and adverse events seen with varied treatment modalities. It provides clinic-ready guidance on how clinicians can best treat their patients on a daily basis as well.
Findings from the authors’ four network meta-analyses suggested that sealants + 5% sodium fluoride (NaF) varnish, resin infiltration + 5% NaF varnish, and 5,000-rpm F (1.1% NaF) toothpaste or gel were the most effective for arresting or reversing noncavitated occlusal, approximal, and noncavitated and cavitated root carious lesions on primary and/or permanent teeth, respectively, with low to moderate certainty evidence.
The study-level data also indicated that 5% NaF varnish was the most effective for arresting or reversing noncavitated facial/lingual carious lesions (low certainty) and that 38% silver diamine fluoride solution applied biannually was the most effective for arresting advanced cavitated carious lesions on any coronal surface (moderate to high certainty).
“While preventing the onset of caries is the ultimate goal of a caries management plan, our review provides important guidelines for nonrestorative management of carious lesions when disease is present,” said Wolff.
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