Clinical effectiveness of pre-treatment with Chlorhexidine in adhesive dental restorations. Systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To determine, by means of a systematic review and meta-analysis, the clinical effectiveness of pre-treatment with chlorhexidine (CHX) in adhesive dental restorations. Material and Methods: A literature search was conducted until February 2020, in the biomedical databases: Pubmed, Embase, Scielo, Science Direct, Scopus, SIGLE, LILACS, Google Scholar and the Cochrane Central Registry of Clinical Trials. The selection criteria of the studies were defined, which were: Randomized and controlled clinical trials, without language and time restrictions, and reporting the clinical effects (retention, marginal discoloration, marginal adaptation, postoperative sensitivity and secondary caries) of pre-CHX treatment in adhesive dental restorations. Study risk of bias was analyzed using the Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Results: The search strategy resulted in six articles of which five entered a meta-analysis. The studies reported that there was no difference in retention, marginal discoloration, marginal adaptation, postoperative sensitivity, and secondary caries from pre-treatment with CHX in adhesive dental restorations. Conclusion: The reviewed literature suggests that pretreatment with CHX does not influence the clinical effectiveness in adhesive dental restorations.