How long do fillings last?

Abstract

Question: In patients requiring dental restoration which filling material lasts longest? Objective To assess whether there were variations in the longevity and the cost of different routine dental restorations. To establish the factors that influence longevity of routine dental restorations focusing on various patient, material and operator factors, as well as choice of outcome criteria to describe treatment success and failure. Data sources Sixteen electronic databases and Internet sources such as Derweb and American College of Physicians Journal Club were used. Hand searches were made of 36 dental journals (limited to English-language publications) and abstracts and proceedings from various societies of dental research. Study selection Studies were excluded if they were not of human subjects, if they were laboratory-based, toxicity studies only, or if they were not relevant eg, not intracoronal. Studies reporting only restoration wear or degradation were excluded. Findings The overall quality of reporting was mediocre. A number of recurrent problems in the presentation of results were identified which should be borne in mind in future reporting of this type of study. A summary is given in Table 1. Conclusions Specific recommendations were made for the different restorative materials but the general conclusion was that to obtain more reliable cost and relative-outcome measurements, a long-term prospective cohort study is needed across different dental settings. Evidence-Based Dentistry (2002) 3, 96 ± 99. doi:10.1038/ sj.ebd.6400146