Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the in vivo scientific evidence of the ability of resin infiltration (RI) to arrest non-cavitated caries lesions.
Materials and methods: The PubMed database was searched for randomized controlled trials that evaluated the in vivo effect of RI versus placebo or other preventive treatment on the progression of caries lesions. The keywords used were 'resin infiltration, dental caries', 'resin infiltration, carious lesions', 'resin infiltration, caries lesions', 'caries infiltration' and 'Icon DMG' with the 'clinical trial' filter activated. Among the 14 articles originally identified with these keywords, only 4 (related to 3 different in vivo studies) were included for this review.
Results: All 4 articles reported on proximal caries lesions. One study had been conducted on 48 high-caries-risk children while the other 3 (n = 22, 22 and 39, respectively) concerned moderate- and low-caries-risk adolescents and adults. The quality of the studies was assessed to be high with respect to randomization, split-mouth design and blinding. All the included studies showed significant differences in caries progression between test and control/placebo groups, indicating that RI may inhibit the carious process.
Conclusion: This systematic review revealed that RI appeared to be an effective method to arrest the progression of non-cavitated caries lesions. Additional, long-term studies are required.