The Hall Technique and conventional restorative treatment in New Zealand children's primary oral health care - clinical outcomes at two years.

Abstract

New Zealand children's oral health care is mostly provided in primary care oral health clinics. Little is known about treatment outcomes. To investigate different treatment outcomes of primary molar carious lesions in a sample of children in primary care. Quasi-experimental study of 180 5- to 8-year-old children. Each child had one carious primary molar treated by a dental therapist with a plastic restorative material (PRM) or a pre-formed stainless steel crown placed with the Hall Technique (HT). After 2years, restorative outcomes were categorised as success, minor failure, or major failure. Data were analysed using Chi-square tests. A total of 147 (82%) children were followed up; mean follow-up period 25months (range: 21-35months). Failure was observed significantly more in the PRM group (32%) than the HT group (6%). When baseline carious lesions were radiographically deep with marginal ridge breakdown (MRB), there was a higher proportionof major failures than when they were shallow without MRB (33% and 1%, respectively;P<0.001). Among the deep lesions, those treated with the HT showed better success than PRM. There was a much higher success rate in the children treated with HT than PRM. Deep carious lesions responded better to HT than PRM.