Resin infiltration effective for maintaining structural integrity of MIH-affected teeth

The study is published in the Journal of Dentistry.

Vinícius Krieger Costa Nogueira and colleagues conducted this study to evaluate the influence of fluoride varnish (FV) therapies or resin infiltration (RI) to maintain the structural integrity of Molar Incisor Hypomineralization (MIH) -affected teeth.

The authors included a total of fifty-one children aged 6–12 years with at least one incisor and one first permanent molar with yellow/brown MIH opacities. Patients were randomly allocated into three groups: FV – Fluoride Varnish (Duraphat); FV+etch – Fluoride Varnish (Duraphat) after enamel etching with 37% phosphoric acid; or RI – Resin Infiltration system (Icon). Opacities were monitored for 18 months.

The primary outcome was the loss of integrity due to post-eruptive enamel breakdown (PEB). Covariables included sex, age, DMFT index, opacity color, plaque index, number of MIH-affected teeth, and number of MIH-affected surfaces. Fisher's Exact was used to test the association of treatments with PEB, the Kaplan-Meyer method analyzed the survival rates and Cox-regression determined which covariables would predict failure (α=0.05).

The results showed that from a total of 235 teeth, the PEB rate for RI (6.1%) was significantly lower (p<0.05) than FV (17.9%; OR 3.0, 95%CI 1.07, 8.48) and FV+etch (17.3%; OR 3.1, 95%CI 1.13, 8.73) and the DMFT index >3, brown opacities, cusp involvement, and age between 6–8 years predicted PEB (p<0.05).

Hence, it was concluded that "resin infiltration positively influenced the structural integrity maintenance of MIH-affected teeth by decreasing the risk of enamel breakdown over18 months follow-up."

Resin infiltration proved to be a more efficacious intervention to maintain the structural integrity of MIH-affected teeth than fluoride varnish therapies, they further added.