Background: Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is a common children's chronic disease which commonly affects primary
molars. Fluoride varnish (FV) induces remineralization, while chlorhexidine varnish (CHX) acts through antimicrobial action against Streptococcus mutans. Nevertheless, there are still few direct comparisons of their effectiveness in carrying out the prevention of ECC.
Methods: This randomized controlled clinical trial was performed with 60 healthy children (3–6 years age), who were
randomly allocated into two equal groups: CHX varnish (n=30) and FV (n=30). Varnishes were placed on a weekly basis, over 3 months and follow-up at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. The primary outcomes were the incidence of new carious lesions or changes of white spot lesions (WSL). Secondary outcome measures were changes in dmft scores.
Results: Were analyzed using chi-square and paired t-tests/ANOVA; the level of significance was set at p0.05). The mean dmft reduction was 0.5 ± 0.2 in CHX and 0.7 ± 0.3 in FV and there were no between-group differences at baseline and after the intervention period (Table I). The two varnishes performed very well in terms of tolerability and compliance.
Conclusion: CHX and FV varnishes had comparable effectiveness, safety and acceptance in the prevention of ECC among preschool children but inferiority was not demonstrated, with higher regression of WSLs in FV- than CHX-treated children but not overall being statistically significant. Both may be suggested as preventive factor in pedodontics. Larger, longer term studies with combination use would be needed.
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