METHOD OF LITERATURE SEARCH
A search strategy was developed for articles indexed
in PubMed,[16] that were written in English, between
the years 1966 and September 2013. Hand searching
was performed for relevant papers cited in the indices
back to the year 1905 and in Japanese journals after
1970. The following inclusion criteria were used to
identify potentially relevant reports: addressed the use
of key words such as SDF, silver fluoride (AgF), silver
compounds and comment on reviews and articles
published in languages other than English, caries
arresting agents. A total of around 97 articles were
found. Inclusion criteria were all in vivo and in vitro
studies in which SDF was used as a study group as well
as review articles on SDF. Exclusion criteria were: early
reports of longer studies, editorials, (With exceptions
of few articles in Chinese and Japanese journals as
those articles includes early study and history of SDF.
Google translation software was used for translation).
Considering this around 42 articles were selected for
the review purpose.