Findings

What do systematic reviews say?

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Evidence found and GRADE certainty

22 questions · 23 findings · 4 reviews

No studies found 0 · 0%GRADE not reported 20 · 87%Very low 0 · 0%Low 1 · 4.3%Moderate 2 · 8.7%High 0 · 0%

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs placebo control

Caries arrestment at the individual (patient) level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

Pooling two trials, SDF markedly increased individual-level caries arrestment versus placebo (OR 18.10; ungraded subgroup).

1 finding from 1 review

SDF applied biannually (every 6 months) vs Other non/minimally-invasive treatment (ART or 5% NaF varnish)

Caries arrest · Children (age 1-10 years) with active cavitated dentin caries lesions in primary molars

Biannual SDF application significantly arrested caries (pooled ES 0.39, 95% CI 0.19-0.60; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

38% SDF (applied every 6 or 12 months) vs 12% SDF solution (applied annually)

Caries arrest · Children (age 1-10 years) with active cavitated dentin caries lesions in primary molars

38% SDF arrested more caries than 12% SDF (pooled ES 0.37, 95% CI 0.27-0.47; single study; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF; 30% or 38%) vs No treatment or another non-invasive/minimally-invasive treatment (ART, sodium fluoride or silver-based varnish, or 12% SDF)

Caries arrest · Children (age 1-10 years) with active cavitated dentin caries lesions in primary molars

SDF is effective in arresting caries progression in cavitated primary molars overall (pooled ES 0.33, 95% CI 0.26-0.40; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF; 30% or 38%) vs Atraumatic restorative treatment (ART)

Caries arrest · Children (age 1-10 years) with active cavitated dentin caries lesions in primary molars

SDF was not significantly better than ART at arresting caries (pooled ES 0.05, 95% CI -0.42 to 0.51; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

SDF applied once (single application, no re-application) vs Other non/minimally-invasive treatment (ART or silver-fluoride varnish)

Caries arrest · Children (age 1-10 years) with active cavitated dentin caries lesions in primary molars

A single (one-time) SDF application did not significantly arrest caries (pooled ES -0.09, 95% CI -0.48 to 0.29; ungraded).

1 finding from 1 review

38% silver diamine fluoride vs Active dentine caries at baseline (single-arm before vs after proportion)

Arrest of dentine caries · Children with dentine caries in primary and permanent teeth

Professionally applied 38% silver diamine fluoride arrested about two-thirds of active dentine caries surfaces in children (pooled proportion 65.9%, 95% CI 41.2% to 90.7%; 5 studies); certainty was not GRADE-rated and heterogeneity was very high (I2=96%).

1 finding from 1 review

Nano-silver fluoride vs Not specified

Arrest of dentine caries · Children with active dentine caries

One randomised trial found nano-silver fluoride arrested dentine caries without the black staining seen with silver diamine fluoride; ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

30% silver diamine fluoride vs Not specified

Arrest of dentine caries · Children with active dentine caries in primary teeth

One study reported 30% silver diamine fluoride effectively arrested dentine caries in primary teeth; ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

12% silver diamine fluoride (SDF), single (one-off) application vs Not specified

Arrest of dentine caries · Children with active dentine caries

One trial found a single application of 12% silver diamine fluoride did not arrest dentine caries; ungraded.

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs Fluoride varnish

Caries arrestment at the tooth level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

In one trial, SDF increased tooth-level caries arrestment versus 5% sodium fluoride varnish (OR 4.75; ungraded subgroup).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs Other methods (pooled: ART/glass ionomer cement, nano-silver fluoride, sodium fluoride varnish)

Caries arrestment at the tooth level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

SDF probably results in a slight increase in tooth-level caries arrestment versus other methods (moderate certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs Nano-silver fluoride (NSF; with or without green tea extract)

Caries arrestment at the tooth level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

Pooling two trials, SDF and nano-silver fluoride showed no significant difference in tooth-level caries arrestment (OR 1.47; ungraded subgroup).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs Atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) with glass ionomer cement (GIC) or glass ionomer material

Caries arrestment at the tooth level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

Pooling two trials, SDF and ART/glass ionomer cement showed no clear difference in tooth-level caries arrestment (OR 1.22, wide CI; ungraded subgroup).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs Fluoride varnish

Caries arrestment at the surface level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

Pooling two highly heterogeneous trials, SDF showed no significant difference versus 5% sodium fluoride varnish in surface-level caries arrestment (OR 1.46; ungraded subgroup).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs Nano-silver fluoride (NSF; with or without green tea extract)

Caries arrestment at the surface level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

In one trial, nano-silver fluoride arrested more surfaces than SDF (OR 0.52 favoring the comparator; ungraded subgroup).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs Other methods (pooled: nano-silver fluoride, sodium fluoride varnish)

Caries arrestment at the surface level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

SDF probably makes little to no difference to surface-level caries arrestment versus other methods (moderate certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF; 30% or 38%) vs Fluoride varnish

Arrest of dentine caries · Preschool children with active dentine caries in primary teeth (mean age 3.4-4.0 years)

Silver diamine fluoride was about 2.5 times more likely than sodium fluoride to arrest dentine caries surfaces at 18 months (pooled OR 2.51, 95% CI 1.25 to 5.10; 2 RCTs), although between-study heterogeneity was high (I2=90.3%); certainty of evidence was not formally graded.

2 findings from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs Other methods (pooled: ART/glass ionomer cement, nano-silver fluoride, placebo)

Caries arrestment at the individual (patient) level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

Compared with other caries-management methods, SDF may increase caries arrestment at the individual level, but the pooled estimate is very imprecise (low certainty).

1 finding from 1 review

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) vs Atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) with glass ionomer cement (GIC) or glass ionomer material

Caries arrestment at the individual (patient) level · Children and adults with active dental caries (aged 1-50; mostly preschool/school children with primary dentition)

In one trial, SDF greatly increased individual-level caries arrestment versus ART/glass ionomer cement (OR 18.03); this subgroup was not separately GRADE-rated.

1 finding from 1 review