The effect of different levels of preparation on the survival rate and complications of resin bonded bridges: a systematic review

Abstract

1. Abstract 1.1 Objectives: To systematically review the current evidence that evaluates the effect of the different preparation levels of the abutment(s) (preparation vs no preparation) on the survival rate and complications of resin bonded bridges (RBBs) restoring a single missing tooth. 1.2 Data: 5689 articles were identified and the title and abstract were screened for inclusion. The full text of 132 eligible studies were reviewed, however, none of these studies was eligible for inclusion to directly answer the review question. 1.3 Sources: 5 electronic databases; Medline, EMBASE, PubMed, Web of science and Scopus were searched for publications between 1975 and January 2020, and other databases for grey literature and hand-searching in four Journals. 1.4 Study selection: All study designs were eligible for inclusion (except case reports, animal and In vitro studies) comparing prepared with unprepared RBBs abutments in the same study. 1.4 Conclusion: No studies were identified to answer the research question; whether having different levels of preparation for the abutments of RBBs result in higher RBB survival rate and lower complications compared with having no abutment preparation. With this lack of evidence, it is difficult to inform the clinicians practice to support or refute having no preparation for the abutments of RBBs as compared to having different levels of abutment preparation. 1.5 Significance: The decision on preparation level will be based mainly on personal experience of the clinician. There is a need for well conducted randomised controlled clinical trials that evaluate the effect of level of preparation of the abutment teeth on the survival rate and complications of RBBs.