Evidence Hub

Zirconia-reinforced glass ionomer restorations in molar incisor hypomineralization: a randomized controlled clinical trial

Reham A. Mahfouz, A. Hanno, Amina M. Abd El Rahman

Clinical Oral Investigations, 2025

5 citations

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of zirconia-reinforced glass ionomer (ZrGI), in reducing pain and sensitivity, and to assess its clinical success in comparison to glass-hybrid glass ionomer (GhGI) in hypomineralized permanent first molars (HPFM) following the Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) approach. This randomized controlled clinical trial included 7–10-year-old children. Eighty-eight HPFMs with evidence of caries, with or without hypersensitivity were included. These molars scored (2a), (2b), (4a), or (4b) according to the MIH Treatment Need Index (MIH-TNI). Selective caries removal was performed using the ART protocol. The test group received ZrGI (Zirconomer®) restorations, and the control group received GhGI (Equia Forte®) restorations. Pain and sensitivity were assessed pre-operatively, using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), then re-assessed post-operatively after 1 week and after 3,6,9, and 12 months (M). Clinical success was evaluated, starting from the 3-month visit, using the ART evaluation criteria. After 12M, the median pain scores for the ZrGI gp., (Q1-Q3; 0.00 – 0.00) and GhGI gp., (Q1-Q3; 0.00 – 0.00) showed no statistically significant difference, (p = 0.329). Median sensitivity scores for the ZrGI gp., (Q1-Q3; 0.00 – 5.00) and the GhGI gp., (Q1-Q3;0.00 – 3.50), also showed no statistically significant difference, (p = 0.344). No significant difference was found between the 12M success rate of ZrGI (86.4%) and GhGI (84.1%), (p = 0.765).…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free