Twelve-month sealant retention in a school-based program using a self-etching primer/adhesive

Area of Science:

• Dental materials science
• Public health dentistry
• Pediatric dentistry

Background:

• Limited independent research exists on new self-etching primer/adhesives in dentistry.
• A recent clinical study compared self-etching primer adhesives with traditional phosphoric acid etch.
• This study evaluated these techniques within an Iowa school-based sealant program.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the retention rates of two dental sealant application techniques.
• To assess self-etching primer adhesives against the traditional phosphoric acid etch method.
• To evaluate effectiveness in a school-based sealant program setting.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 12-month sealant retention data.
• Data collected from 208 students in the Des Moines, Iowa, school-based sealant program.
• Logistic regression modeling at the person level to compare retention techniques.

Main Results:

• Sixty percent of students required resealing of one or more surfaces after one year.
• The phosphoric acid etch technique was six times more likely to achieve full sealant retention compared to Prompt-L-Pop.
• Overall tooth-level sealant retention was lower than previously reported in similar programs.

Conclusions:

• Many students experienced incomplete sealant retention, necessitating chairside recalls.
• While phosphoric acid showed better retention, overall tooth-level retention was suboptimal.
• Analyzing person-level data aids program planning and protocol reevaluation for improved sealant efficacy.