Success and Acceptability of Stainless Steel Crowns placed by using Hall Technique with Modifications: A Randomised Clinical Trial

Introduction: High frequency of caries in primary teeth and its inadequate treatment is major public health problem, that significantly affecting children’s lives. The Hall Technique (HT) is a novel method of caries management for treating primary molars compared to conventional treatment techniques used in primary health care settings. It is one of the methods used for biological sealing in carious primary molars, in which bacteria will be sealed from the oral environment thereby inactivating the carious lesion. This technique also increases the child’s compliance and operator comfort as the local anaesthetic administration is eliminated.

Aim: To prospectively evaluate the clinical success and failure rate, and acceptability of Stainless Steel Crowns (SSC) placed using Hall Technique (HT) and with Modified Hall Technique (MHT) in rural school children aged 6-9 years.

Materials and Methods: In a school-based setting, a randomised clinical trial was done with a total of 60 children (60 teeth) aged 6-9 years, who were randomly divided into two groups, 30 in each. In Group A (HT)- crowns were placed using the HT and in Group B (MHT)- MHT and follow-up were done at 3, 6, and 12 months. The acceptability of the technique for both the parents and children was evaluated with the questionnaire. The data analysis was carried out using a Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 21). Statistical significance was set at p<0.05.

Results: In the HT group, the majority of crowns 26 (86.7%) were successful with 2 (6.6%) minor failures and 2 (6.6%) major failures, whereas the MHT group showed 100% success with no failures. On comparing Group A with Group B no significant differences were observed (p>0.05). Children’s acceptability and preference were more towards the MHT.

Conclusion: The MHT was well accepted by children and the parents showed preference towards both the techniques.