An economic evaluation of pit and fissure sealants and fluoride varnishes in preventing dental caries: a systematic review.

The aim was to systematically evaluate the cost-effectiveness of pit and fissure sealants (PFSs) compared with that of fluoride varnishes (FVs) in dental caries prevention. We searched four electronic databases including the Cochrane Oral Health Group's Trials Register (till 03 June 2022), Web of Science (from 1945 to 03 June 2022), PubMed (from 1996 to 03 June 2022), and EMBASE via Ovid (from 1980 to 03 June 2022) to identify the cost and effectiveness of PFSs and FVs in decreasing dental caries incidence. Two researchers independently screened search results, extracted data from the included studies, and conducted the risk of bias assessments. The main characteristics of the included studies were extracted and analyzed. The initial search produced 874 articles. After removing duplicates and full-text review, 19 studies were included. In this study: nine studies were on PFSs comparison with control; five on PFSs comparison with FVs; and five on FVs comparison with control. Regarding the type of economic evaluation (EE), 13 studies conducted cost-effectiveness analysis, five conducted cost-utility analyses, and one conducted both cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-utility analyses. The cost-effectiveness evaluation of PFSs and FVs in the available studies was limited. The prevalence of dental caries, payers' willingness to pay, length of follow-ups, delivery settings, retention rate of PFS, and application intervals of FV can affect the economic evaluation of these two methods for dental caries prevention. Therefore, more studies in the future are need to draw clear conclusions about which method is more cost-effective for the two preventive interventions in future.

Inequalities in dental caries among 12-year-old Chinese children.

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether there are socioeconomic, ethnic, and geographical inequalities in dental caries among 12-year-old Chinese children. METHODS: Data from 2,307 12-year-old children living in Guangxi, Hubei, Jilin, and Shanxi and who participated in the Third National Oral Health Survey in China were used for this study. Data were collected through structured questionnaires and clinical examinations with children. The decayed, missing, and filled permanent teeth (DMFT) index and number of decayed teeth (DT) were the outcome measures for analysis. Inequalities in DMFT and DT by socioeconomic position (parental education), ethnicity, and geography (province of residence and urbanicity) were assessed in unadjusted and adjusted negative binomial regression models. RESULTS: Ethnicity and geographical factors, but not parental education, were significantly associated with childhood dental caries in unadjusted models. However, only geographical factors remained significantly related to dental caries after mutual adjustments. The DMFT index and DT were higher among children living in Jilin and Guangxi than those of children living in Hubei and Shanxi, and also higher among children living in rural areas than in those living in urban areas. CONCLUSION: This analysis shows inequalities in dental caries among 12-year-old children in four provinces of China. There were considerable inequalities in children's DMFT and number of decayed teeth by geography but not by ethnicity or parental education.