Summary of findings 1. Sealing using sealant materials compared to non‐selective carious tissue removal and conventional restoration for treating cavitated or dentine carious lesions.
| Sealing using sealant materials compared to non‐selective carious tissue removal and CR for treating cavitated or dentine carious lesions | ||||||
| Population: treating cavitated or dentine carious lesions, permanent or primary dentition Setting: secondary care/university Intervention: sealing using sealant materials Comparison: non‐selective carious tissue removal and CR | ||||||
| Outcomes | Anticipated absolute effects* (95% CI) | Relative effect (95% CI) | № of participants (studies) | Certainty of the evidence (GRADE) | Comments | |
| Risk with non‐selective carious tissue removal and CR | Risk with sealing using sealant materials | |||||
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Failure of therapy
Follow‐up 48 months |
48 per 1000 | 200 per 1000 (25 to 711) | OR 5.00 (0.51 to 49.27) | 41 (1 RCT) | ⊕⊝⊝⊝ Very lowa | The evidence is very uncertain about the effect of sealing with sealant materials compared to CR. 1 additional parallel group study and 2 additional split‐mouth studies reported failure, but could not be included in the meta‐analysis due to the nature of the reporting of the outcome data. |
| *The risk in the intervention group (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; CR: conventional restoration; OR: odds ratio; RCT: randomised controlled trial. | ||||||
| GRADE Working Group grades of evidence High certainty: we are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect. Moderate certainty: we are moderately confident in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be close to the estimate of the effect, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different. Low certainty: our confidence in the effect estimate is limited: the true effect may be substantially different from the estimate of the effect. Very low certainty: we have very little confidence in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be substantially different from the estimate of effect. | ||||||
aDowngraded three levels due to study limitations (risk of bias) and serious imprecision (single study with low number of events, small sample size and wide confidence intervals).