Keywords Dental caries, Restored, Primary, Deciduous
teeth, Outcomes, Children
Aim To study the outcomes for restored primary
molar teeth; to examine outcomes in relation to tooth
type involved, intracoronal restoration complexity and
to the material used.
Materials and methods Design: Retrospective
study of primary molar teeth restored by intracoronal
restorations. A series of restored primary molar teeth
for children aged 6-12 years was studied. The principal
outcome measure was failure of initial restoration
(re-restoration or extraction). Three hundred patient
records were studied to include three equal groups of
primary molar teeth restored with amalgam, composite
or glass ionomer, respectively. Restorative materials,
the restoration type, simple (single surface) or complex
(multi-surface) restoration, and tooth notation were
recorded. Subsequent interventions were examined.
Data were coded and entered into a Microsoft Excel
database and analysis undertaken using SPSS v.18.
Statistical differences were tested using the c2 test of
statistical significance.
Results Of the 300 teeth studied, 61 restoration
failures were recorded with 11 of those extracted. No
significant differences were found between outcomes
for upper first, upper second, lower first or lowersecond primary molars. Outcomes for simple primary
teeth restored by intracoronal restorations were
significantly better than those for complex intracoronal
restorations (P = 0.042). Teeth originally restored with
amalgam accounted for 19.7% of the 61 failures,
composite for 29.5%, while teeth restored with glass
ionomer represented 50.8% of all restoration failures.
The differences were significant (P = 0.012).
Conclusions The majority (79.7%) of the 300
restored primary teeth studied were successful, and
3.7% teeth were extracted. Restorations involving
more than one surface had almost twice the failure
rate of single surface restorations. The difference was
significant. Significant differences in failure rates for
the three dental materials studied were recorded.
Amalgam had the lowest failure rate while the failure
rate with glass ionomer was the highest.