ABSTRACT
Stainless steel crowns [SSCs] are widely used in restoring severely damaged primary molar teeth. Since these crowns do not adapt ideally to tooth substance, they may lead to some changes in surrounding gingiva. This clinical study was performed to evaluate the effect of stainless steel crowns placed on primary molars on gingival structures. In this retrospective study, 117 crowns in eighty four 4-11 year old children attended to pediatric department of Zahedan dental school were evaluated. Convenience sampling method was done. Some clinical factors such as gingival index, tooth type, state of being either right or left molar, or upper or lower molar, time elapsed after cementation, crown marginal adaptation, excessive cementation around the margin of crown and the oral hygiene level were examined. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were used for data analysis through SPSS 15 software [P<0.05]. In our study only 11.1% of the evaluated crowns demonstrated clinically healthy gingival, and there was a significant correlation between upper and lower molar, crowns marginal adaptation and oral hygiene level with gingival index [P<0.05], while gingival index was not significantly affected by tooth type, tooth side, time elapsed after cementation and presence of excessive cement around the margin of crown and sex [P>0.05]. Stainless steel crowns had no harmful effect on the gingival provided performing standard preparation procedures especially in upper molars and stablishing proper marginal adaptation and good oral hygiene level