Interventions in management of dental fluorosis, an endemic disease: A systematic review

OBJECTIVE: Mottling and pitting of enamel due to excess fluoride consumption may affect one's self-esteem due to unaesthetic appearance and also in turn can affect the quality of life. This present study was conducted to assess various treatment approaches available for patients with dental fluorosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Literatures were searched from August 1998 to August 2019 for articles in the management of dental fluorosis. The databases used were National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and Google Scholar. In NCBI, the filters were modified to randomized controlled trial, clinical trial, human trial, and free full-text articles. The following queries were used in order to search for the article: treatment for dental fluorosis, intervention of dental fluorosis, and management of dental fluorosis. RESULTS: All the five studies selected after screening were randomized controlled trials. Total number of patients included in this study were 304 with the mean age of 17.7 years old. They were treated with microabrasion, bleaching, resin infiltration or combination of microabrasion with bleaching, and resin infiltration with bleaching. Microabrasion resulted in less esthetic improvement compared with bleaching. Meanwhile, resin infiltration showed a greater improvement in esthetics in comparison to bleaching. Resin infiltration with additional infiltration time and combination of resin infiltration with bleaching are the best treatment options. CONCLUSION: Based on this systematic review, resin infiltration with increased infiltration time is the best treatment approach in treating dental fluorosis.