Abstract
Pits and fissure sealant is an ideal preventive method and has been widely used in pediatric dental practice. There is on the market a sealant material which contains filler particles (60 % wt) to improve retention rate. The filler particles are made from submicronic, spherical, inorganic material. The purpose of this study was to compare clinically a filled visible-light cured sealant (Palfique Light Sealant ; PLS, Tokuyama Co.) with an unfilled visible-light cured sealant (Teeth Mate-A ; TMA, Kurary Co). Children (mean age 7 year 9 month) were selected who had a pair caries-free first permanent molars in the same arch. The two materials were bilaterally sealed in 41 pairs of teeth (18 maxillary and 23 mandibular first permanent molars) on the same day. The children were reexamined at 1, 2, and 4 months and then every 4 months after sealant application for a total of 24 months. The results were as follows. 1) Neither of the sealants were completely lost. 2) Complete retention rates at occlusal surface of maxillary were 100% and 100% in PLS, and 94.9% and 88.9% in TMA at the 12-and 24-month examination. Complete retention rates at the occlusal surface of the mandibular were 95.7% and 82.6% in PLS, and 87.0% and 82.6% in TMA at the 12-and 24-month examination. We found that the complete retention rates decreased each year for each material except at the occlusal surface of the maxillary for PLS. There was no statistically significant difference in the complete retention rates between the two materials at any time. 3) We observed that bubbles were contained in the materials. The incidence of bubbles was higher in teeth sealed with PLS than in teeth TMA. In this study, we did not find any superiority of the sealant material which contained filler particles.
