Abstract
Background New Zealand children's oral health care is mostly provided in primary care oral health clinics. Little is known about treatment outcomes. Hypothesis/Aim To investigate different treatment outcomes of primary molar carious lesions in a sample of children in primary care. Design Quasi‐experimental study of 180 5‐ to 8‐year‐old children. Each child had one carious primary molar treated by a dental therapist with a plastic restorative material ( PRM ) or a pre‐formed stainless steel crown placed with the Hall Technique ( HT ). After 2 years, restorative outcomes were categorised as success, minor failure, or major failure. Data were analysed using Chi‐square tests. Results A total of 147 (82%) children were followed up; mean follow‐up period 25 months (range: 21–35 months). Failure was observed significantly more in the PRM group (32%) than the HT group (6%). When baseline carious lesions were radiographically deep with marginal ridge breakdown ( MRB ), there was a higher proportion of major failures than when they were shallow without MRB (33% and 1%, respectively; P < 0.001). Among the deep lesions, those treated with the HT showed better success than PRM . Conclusions There was a much higher success rate in the children treated with HT than PRM . Deep carious lesions responded better to HT than PRM .