Background: Scotland has high levels of untreated dental caries in primary teeth. The Hall Technique is a simplified method of managing carious primary molars using preformed metal crowns (PMCs) cemented with no local anaesthesia, caries removal or tooth preparation. This study compared the acceptability of the Hall Technique for children, their carers, and dentists, and clinical outcomes for the technique, with conventional restorations.

Minimal invasive approaches to managing caries, such as partial caries removal techniques, are showing increasing evidence of improved outcomes over the conventional complete caries removal. There is also increasing interest in techniques where no caries is removed. We present the 1-yr results of clinical efficacy for 3 caries management options for occlusoproximal cavitated lesions in primary molars: conventional restorations (CR; complete caries removal and compomer restoration), Hall technique (HT; no caries removal, sealing in with stainless steel crowns), and nonrestorative caries treatment (NRCT; no caries removal, opening up the cavity, teaching brushing and fluoride application). In sum, 169 children (3-8 yr old; mean, 5.56 ± 1.45 yr) were enrolled in this secondary care-based, 3-arm, parallelgroup, randomized clinical trial. Treatments were carried out by specialist pediatric dentists or postgraduate trainees. One lesion per child received CR, HT, or NRCT. Outcome measures were clinical failure rates, grouped as minor failure (restoration loss/ need for replacement, reversible pulpitis, caries progression, etc.) and major failure (irreversible pulpitis, abscess, etc.). There were 148 children (87.6%) with a minimum follow-up of 11 mo (mean, 12.23 ± 0.98 mo). Twenty teeth were recorded as having at least 1 minor failure: NRCT, n = 8 (5%); CR, n = 11 (7%); HT, n = 1 (1%) (p = .002, 95% CI = 0.001 to 0.003). Only the comparison between NRCT and CR showed no significant difference (p = .79, 95% CI = 0.78 to 0.80). Nine (6%) experienced at least 1 major failure: NRCT, n = 4 (2%); CR, n = 5 (3%); HT, n = 0 (0%) (p = .002, 95% CI = 0.001 to 0.003). Individual comparison of NRCT and CR showed no statistically significant difference in major failures (p = .75, 95% CI = 0.73 to 0.76). Success and failure rates were not significantly affected by pediatric dentists' level of experience (p = .13, 95% CI = 0.12 to 0.14). The HT was significantly more successful clinically than NRCT and CR after 1 yr, while pairwise analyses showed comparable results for treatment success between NRCT and CR (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01797458).

BackgroundThere is a high level of untreated dental decay in primary teeth in Scotland. Despite evidence for the efficacy of preformed metal crowns (PMCs) for the restoration of primary molars, few are placed in general practice, possibly due to the interventive nature of the clinical procedure. There is, however, a novel way of placing PMCs involving no local anaesthesia, no caries removal and no preparation of the tooth: the Hall technique. Aim To investigate the survival of carious primary teeth treated with PMCs placed using a novel, simplified method -the Hall technique. Setting General dental practice, in Scotland. Methods A retrospective analysis of practice records from one general practitioner, from 1988 to 2001. The majority of the 978 PMCs fitted on 259 children, using the Hall technique, were placed when there was clinical evidence of approximal caries into dentine. The Kaplan-Meier approach was used to analyse survival times and the Mantel-Haenszel Log rank test for comparison between tooth types. Results For all tooth types, the probability of surviving three years without being extracted or the PMC being lost, was 73.4% (95% confidence interval 70.1% to 76.4%), and for five years was 67.6% (95% confidence interval 63.3% to 71.5%). The probability of surviving without extraction alone for three years was 86.0% (95% confidence interval 83.2% to 88.4%), and for five years was 80.5% (95% confidence interval 76.5% to 83.9%). Conclusion Hall technique restorations placed on primary molars with decay clinically into dentine, by a single operator in general dental practice, have a similar success rate to some other, more conventional, restorative techniques. The technique requires further evaluation through a prospective randomised control clinical trial before its use could be generally recommended.

Dentists reported more negative behaviour in CR group. For all techniques, children's pain perception and dentist/parent acceptability were similar.