Light-Cured Silver Diamine Fluoride for Active Cavitated Caries Arrest in Primary Teeth: A Split-Mouth Trial

Objective To compare the caries-arrest effectiveness in primary teeth between 38% Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF) applied for 10 seconds (s) followed by 20 s of light curing (SDF10LC) and 38% SDF applied for 60 s (SDF60). A secondary objective was to examine factors related to caries arrest. Materials and methods Healthy children between 2 and 5 years of age with carious tooth pairs were recruited to participate. Each child had to have at least 1 pair of active cavitated dentin caries (Nyvad score 3) on the contralateral side. Successful treatment was indicated by arrested caries (Nyvad score 6). Results Forty-five children (mean age 4.32 ± 0.94 years) with 128 carious tooth pairs participated. Follow-up at 12 months included 38 children with 107 carious pairs. Eighty-one pairs (75.7%) showed arrested caries in both protocols, while 16 pairs (15.0%) were active. Six pairs (5.6%) were arrested in the SDF10LC but active in SDF60, and 4 pairs (3.7%) were arrested in SDF60 but active in SDF10LC. No statistically significant difference was found between treatment protocols ( P = .754). Factors such as tooth type, carious surface type and number of surfaces significantly impacted caries arrest. Conclusion Within the limitations of this study, SDF10LC demonstrated 12-month caries-arrest effectiveness comparable to the SDF60 protocol in primary teeth, offering a clinical alternative that reduces treatment time by half. However, findings should be interpreted with caution due to unadjusted child-level clustering and potential statistical power limitations. Clinical relevance Applying 38% SDF for 10 s followed by 20 s light-curing provides a time-efficient alternative that halves chairside application time while achieving promising 12-month dental caries arrest in primary teeth, enhancing its paediatric clinical feasibility.