Chlorhexidine may improve survival of ART restorations: Study

Researchers from the Conservative Department, Faculty of Dentistry, Cairo University, Egypt have recently found out that Chlorhexidine may improve the survival of ART restorations when used as pre-treatment or restoration mix-in. The study is published in the Journal of Dentistry. Antibacterial restorations can increase the success rate of minimum invasive dentistry especially in young permanent molars with deep carious lesions as an attempt to preserve maximum dental structure and avoid pulp exposure. Therefore, Dina M.Elkady and colleagues conducted the present study to systematically assess the efficacy of chlorhexidine (CHX) as a cavity pre-treatment or restoration mix-in on the survival of ART restorations. The authors included randomized controlled trials that assessed the effect of cavity pretreatment with CHX or the restoration mix-in of CHX on the survival of ART restorations (test group) versus a similar restorative approach without CHX. Four studies with 261 patients (mean age 3.8–14.6 years) and 467 ART restorations were included. Risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane's randomized trial quality assessment Tool (RoB 2.0). Random-effects meta-analysis was conducted, with mean Odds Ratios and 95 % confidence intervals (OR, 95 % CI) as effect estimates. The certainty of the evidence was assessed according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system. The findings showed that there were no significant differences between CHX vs. control (OR = 0.79, 95 % CI [0.26, 2.40], P = 0.68, I² = 3%, P = 0.35). The strength of the evidence was estimated as low. Hence, the authors concluded that "CHX pre-treatment or restoration mix-in did not have any significant benefit for survival of ART restorations. There is a lack of evidence regarding the influence of chlorhexidine on the survival of ART restorations. The results revealed that there was no significant difference in the survival of ART restorations when CHX was used as a cavity pre-treatment or mix-in, they further added.