Health professionals' recommendations on the use of fluoride varnish for caries prevention in preschool children. 2024

Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Rio de Janeiro State University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

BACKGROUND Fluoride varnish (FV) is widely recommended for caries prevention in preschool children, despite its anticaries benefits being uncertain and modest. Dentists often report using clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) as a source of scientific information. OBJECTIVE To identify and analyze recommendations for clinical practice on the use of FV for caries prevention in preschool children and to assess the methodological quality of the CPG on this topic. METHODS Two researchers independently used 12 search strategies and searched the first five pages of Google Search™ and three guideline databases for recommendations freely available to health professionals on the use of FV for caries prevention in preschoolers. Then, they retrieved and recorded recommendations that met the eligibility criteria and extracted the data. A third researcher resolved disagreements. Each included CPG was appraised using the AGREE II instrument. RESULTS Twenty-nine documents were included. Recommendations varied according to age, patients' caries risk, and application frequency. Of the six CPGs, only one scored above 70% in the AGREE II overall assessment. CONCLUSIONS Recommendations on the use of FV lacked scientific evidence, and CPGs were of poor quality. Application of FV is widely recommended despite recent evidence showing an uncertain, modest, and possibly not clinically relevant anticaries benefit. Dentists should be aware that it is necessary to critically appraise CPGs since they may be of poor quality.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
January 2008, Dentistry today,
Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
March 2007, The journal of evidence-based dental practice,
Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
June 2022, Journal of public health dentistry,
Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
October 1980, Stomatologie der DDR,
Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
October 1976, Den Norske tannlaegeforenings tidende,
Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
December 1978, Journal of the International Association of Dentistry for Children,
Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
January 1985, L' Information dentaire,
Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
January 2003, Oral health & preventive dentistry,
Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
February 2019, Shanghai kou qiang yi xue = Shanghai journal of stomatology,
Flávia Macedo Couto, and Fernanda Santos de Oliveira de Sousa, and Gabriela Cristina Vicente, and Daniel Pereira de Faria Castro, and Paulo Nadanovsky, and Ana Paula Pires Dos Santos, and Fernanda Barja-Fidalgo
January 2016, Caries research,
Copied contents to your clipboard!