Objective To assess the effect of atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) on decayed deciduous and permanent teeth in children. Methods Such databases as CENTRAL of The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMbase, CBM, CNKI, and VIP were searched, and the China clinical trial register center were also searched. The search was conducted by the end of April, 2009 to collect the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of ART vs. conventional restorative treatment (CRT) for childhood caries. The data extraction was performed by two reviewers independently. The quality of the included studies was critically assessed and the data analyses were performed by the Cochrane Collaboration’s RevMan 5.0.2 software. Results A total of seven randomized controlled trials were included. Only was the descriptive analysis conducted because of the difference of restorative materials used in each study, the types of target teeth, the measure indexes, and the year limit of follow up, which showed that, most of the included studies suggested that the survival rate of restorative materials in all types of caries hole was similar between the ART group and the CRT group; only a few studies suggested that the CRT group was superior to the ART group; the children in the ART group felt more comfortable than those in the CRT group during the treatment procedure; two studies compared the working time and got an opposite results. Conclusion Because of the higher clinical heterogeneity of the include studies, the merger analysis fails to be conducted, so it is impossible to get a precise conclusion about the effect of treating childhood caries with ART vs. CRT, and more RCTs with high quality are needed for confirmation.
We searched randomized controlled trials, meta-analysis and systematic reviews from OVID-EBM Reviews which included ACP Journal Club, The Cochrane Library, and MEDLINE（1991 to 2005 ） to evaluate clinical effectiveness of pit and fissure sealants for caries. The resultsshowed that pit and fissure sealants were recommended to prevent caries of the occlusal surface. The effectiveness varied between the two types of sealants, in general, flowable resin composite had a more satisfactory retention than glass ionomer composite. Acid etch was helpful for less microleakage and more satisfactory retention. Mechanical air-abrasion with acid etch may have the best border seal, However, we were not sure of the effectiveness of Er：YAG laser, technique of dental drill preparation and splicing. More high quality clinical trials on pit and fissure sealants are still needed.
To explore the effects of plasma jet (PJ) and plasma activated water (PAW) on the sterilization of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods, so as to provide a basis for plasma treatment of dental caries and to enrich the treatment means of dental caries, an atmospheric pressure plasma excitation system was built, and the effects of PJ and PAW on the sterilization rate of S. mutans and the changes of temperature and pH during treatment were studied under different excitation voltage (Ue) and different excitation time (te). The results showed that in the PJ treatment, the difference in the survival rate of S. mutans between the treatment group and the control group was statistically significant (P = 0.007, d=2.66) when Ue = 7 kV and te = 60 s, and complete sterilization was achieved at Ue = 8 kV and te = 120 s in the PJ treatment. In contrast, in the PAW treatment, the difference in the survival rate of S. mutans between the treatment group and the control group was statistically significant (P = 0.029, d = 1.71) when Ue = 7 kV and te = 30 s, and complete sterilization was achieved with PAW treatment when Ue = 9 kV and te = 60 s. Results of the monitoring of temperature and pH showed that the maximum temperature rise during PJ and PAW treatment did not exceed 4.3 °C, while the pH value after PAW treatment would drop to a minimum of 3.02. In summary, the optimal sterilization parameters for PJ were Ue=8 kV and 90 s < te ≤ 120 s, while the optimal sterilization parameters for PAW were Ue = 9 kV and 30 s<te ≤ 60 s. Both treatment methods achieved non-thermal sterilization of S. mutans, where PJ required only a smaller Ue to achieve complete sterilization, while at pH < 4.7, PAW only required a shorter te to achieve complete sterilization, but its acidic environment could cause some chemical damage to the teeth. This study can provide some reference value for plasma treatment of dental caries.