Topical antimicrobial therapy in the prevention of early childhood caries: a follow-up report.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of antimicrobial therapy in the prevention of early childhood caries (ECC).


METHODS
The study population consisted of 83 subjects (age: 12 to 19 months (x= 15.6); gender: 40 females and 43 males). Inclusion criteria included: (1) unremarkable medical history; (2) presence of 4 maxillary primary incisors (MPI) with no visible defects; (3) clinically caries free; (4) use of a nursing bottle at naptime and/or bedtime which contained a cariogenic substrate; (5) 2 consecutive ms positive cultures from pooled MPI plaque. The subjects were randomized into 2 groups. The 39 subjects in the experimental group and the 44 subjects in the control group were evaluated every 2 months during the study period. At each evaluation, the subjects had 10% povidone iodine (experimental group) or placebo (control group) applied to their dentition. Treatment failure was defined as the appearance of a white spot lesion(s) on any of the MPI during the study period.


RESULTS
Using the Kaplan-Meier procedure, the estimated percents (+/- SES) of participants to experience 12 months of disease-free survival were 91 +/- 5% for those receiving treatment and 54 +/- 9% for those in the control group. Via the log-rank test, the hazard of treatment failure is statistically significantly higher in the placebo group (log-rank statistic 10.28, two-sided P=0.0013).


CONCLUSIONS
These observations indicate that topical antimicrobial therapy increases disease-free survival in children at high risk for ECC.
Lopez
Lydia
L
School of Dentistry, University of Puerto Rico Medical Center, San Juan, USA.
Berkowitz
Robert
R
Spiekerman
Charles
C
Weinstein
Phillip
P
D000891:Anti-Infective Agents, Local / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011206:Povidone-Iodine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D016019:Survival Analysis
D000891:Anti-Infective Agents, Local; D011206:Povidone-Iodine