Effect of saliva contamination on microleakage of three different pit and fissure sealants

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of saliva contamination and compare the microleakage of three different pit-and-fissure sealants namely, Helioseal F, Enamel Loc and Fuji VII.

Sixty recently extracted sound third molars were randomly assigned to three groups for three different sealant materials (n=20). Each sealant group was then randomly divided into two as uncontaminated (n=10) and saliva contaminated (n=10) prior to sealant placement. The samples were thermocycled in water for 500 cycles between 5 and 55 degrees C with a dwell time of 30 s and immersed in 1% methylene-blue for 24 h. The samples were sectioned and scored on a 3 point rating scale using a light microscope.

Among both contaminated and uncontaminated groups Helioseal F showed statistically significantly less microleakage compared to Enamel Loc and Fuji VII groups (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between Enamel Loc and Fuji VII in both absence and presence of saliva contamination (p>0.05).

The results were analysed using Kruskal Wallis test while study groups were compared with Mann-Whitney test for statistically significant differences at 5% significance level.

Under both uncontaminated and saliva contaminated conditions, the light-cured resin-based pit-and-fissure sealant Helioseal F yielded lower microleakage scores compared to Enamel Loc and Fuji VII.