Preventive
Audrey Morris, DMD
Resident
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
William Buhler, DDS
UNLV
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Purpose: The purpose of the study is to evaluate several properties of commonly used pit and fissure sealant material.
Methods: One hundred twenty newly extracted, caries free posterior teeth were collected from the emergency clinic at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Teeth were randomly divided into three groups (40 teeth for each material group with 4 as control and 36 as an active sample). The examined materials were as follows: Fit SA material group, UltraSeal group, or the Fuji Triage group. The materials were placed following the manufacturer instructions and the surface roughness, fluoride release, color stability, and retention of the restoration were checked before and after thermocycling 1, 3, and 5 clinical years.
Results: There was a significant difference in fluoride release with Fuji Triage having the highest amount of fluoride release compared to the other groups. There was no significant color change over 5 clinical years comparing the sealant materials. After 5 clinical years, UltraSeal had 100% retention of the sealant material, compared to Fuji Triage with a 90% retention rate, and with Fit SA had the least retention (62.5%). Regarding the surface roughness, no statistical significance was observed between the groups.
Conclusion: Within the limitations of the present study, Fuji Triage performed better than other examined materials after 5 clinical years of aging. This concludes that etching and bonding can improve the performance and retention of the sealant material.