EFFICACY OF FLUORIDE VARNISH TO MINIMIZE ACTIVE CARIES AMONG CHILDREN

The efficacy of fluoride varnish (5 percent NaF, Duraphat®, Colgate) coupled with caregiver counselling to prevent early children caries was investigated in a two-year randomised, dental examiner-masked clinical trial. Initially, 400 low-income children without caries were recruited (mean age, standard deviation, 1.8 0.6 years). Everyone was assigned to one of three groups: no fluoride varnish, fluoride varnish once a year, or fluoride varnish twice a year. Some children received less active fluoride varnish than was advised due to an unforeseen event. Fluoride varnish had a protective impact on caries incidence in intent-to-treat trials, with a p value of 0.01.A dose-response effect was identified with a p value of 0.01 when the number of real, active fluoride varnish treatments received was investigated. The 'counselling only' group had a higher rate of caries than the 'counselling + fluoride varnish assigned once/year' (OR = 2.20, 95 percent CI 1.19-4.08) and 'twice/year' (OR = 3.77, 95 percent CI 1.88-7.58) groups. There were no side effects reported. Fluoride varnish has been shown to be effective in lowering the incidence of early childhood caries when used in conjunction with caregiver counselling.