Clinical Performance of Short Fibre-reinforced Glass Ionomer Cement Restorations in Cervical Carious Lesions: 12-Month Randomized Clinical Trial

The aim was to assess the clinical performance of experimental short fiber-reinforced glass-ionomer cement (FR-GIC) in the treatment of cervical caries lesions. A total of 45 patients were randomly enrolled in this trial according to the split-mouth design. The FR-GIC was prepared by adding short glass fibers at a mass ratio of 20% into the powder portion of Fuji II LC. The cervical lesions in the intervention group were restored with FR-GIC, while unmodified Fuji II LC was applied as the control. Clinical evaluation was performed by two blinded operators at baseline, at 6, and 12 months using modified USPHS criteria. The data were analyzed using Friedman's test, followed by the Nemenyi post hoc test with a significance level of alpha = 0.05. After 1 year, all restorations were fully retained. There was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) between the two materials based on the evaluated criteria. Both groups had 4 (10%) cases with Bravo scores for cavos-surface marginal discoloration. Regarding marginal integrity, Bravo scores were observed in 5 (12.5%) cases in the intervention group and 4 (10%) cases in the control group. Both materials in the treatment of cervical caries lesions demonstrated satisfactory clinical outcome throughout the 12-month follow-up.