Summary of findings 3. Resin‐based fissure sealant together with fluoride varnish versus fluoride varnish alone for preventing dental caries.
| Resin‐based fissure sealant together with fluoride varnish compared with fluoride varnish alone for preventing dental caries | ||||||
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Patient or population: children and adolescents Settings: sealant and fluoride varnish applications for school children in Germany Intervention: resin‐based fissure sealant together with fluoride varnish applications on occlusal tooth surfaces of permanent first molars Comparison: fluoride varnish applications to occlusal tooth surfaces of permanent first molars | ||||||
| Outcomes | Illustrative comparative risks* (95% CI) | Relative effect (95% CI) | Number of participants (studies) | Quality of the evidence (GRADE) | Comments | |
| Assumed risk | Corresponding risk | |||||
| Fluoride‐varnished teeth | Sealed + fluoride‐varnished teeth | |||||
| Dentine caries in permanent molars Follow‐up: 2 years | Incidence of carious first molars (22.3%) 223 per 1000 | Incidence of carious first molars (7.9%) 79 per 1000 (46 to 136) |
OR 0.30 (95% CI 0.17 to 0.55) | 98 children randomly assigned, 92 evaluated after 2 years (1 study)a,b | ⊕⊕⊝⊝ Lowc | No information on adverse events |
| *The basis for the assumed risk (e.g. median control group risk across studies) is provided in footnotes. The corresponding risk (and its 95% confidence interval) is based on the assumed risk in the comparison group and the relative effect of the intervention (and its 95% CI) CI: Confidence interval; OR: Odds ratio | ||||||
| GRADE Working Group grades of evidence High quality: Further research is very unlikely to change our confidence in the estimate of effect Moderate quality: Further research is likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and may change the estimate Low quality: Further research is very likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and is likely to change the estimate Very low quality: We are very uncertain about the estimate | ||||||
aStudy conducted in the 1990s (Splieth 2001). bNo information on caries incidence among control teeth without treatment. Baseline caries of the study population (children five to eight years of age): mean DMFS 0.2. cQuality of evidence was downgraded by two levels because a single study (92 analysed participants) was conducted as early as the 1990s without information on caries incidence among control teeth without treatment, and although the study was otherwise well conducted, lack of blinding to outcome measurement caused further uncertainty about results.