Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a national population-based dental sealant in South Korea. This nationwide, population-based cohort study involved all children in South Korea aged 6-7 years who received sealants from 2010 to 2011 and were followed up for 10 years using the Korea National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) database. After 1:2 propensity score matching, 857,723 children were selected for analysis. During the 10-year follow-up, the permanent first molars of the participants were assessed for caries-related treatments (pulpotomy and pulp capping, root canal treatment, and tooth extraction) using multilevel Cox proportional hazards models. The risk of caries-related treatment was lower in the sealant treatment group than in the control group. The hazard ratios (HRs) for caries-related treatments among participants were 0.59 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.57-0.61) for pulpotomy and pulp capping, 0.57 (95% CI 0.55-0.58) for root canal treatment, and 0.29 (95% CI 0.27-0.32) for tooth extraction. This large-scale nationwide cohort study indicated that the sealant treatment in children aged 6-7 years significantly reduced the risk of caries-related treatments (pulpotomy and pulp capping, endodontic treatment, and tooth extraction) by at least 40% during the 10-year follow-up period. Sealant treatment in children reduced the caries risk during the 10-year follow-up. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the insurance policy for dental sealants.
Published Version
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