The visibility of clear and opaque fissure sealants

Results are reported of a double-blind trial to assess the accuracy with which three examiners identified an opaque and a clear fissure sealant. The combined identification error rate for opaque resin was only 1.4%, whilst for clear resin it was 22.8%. The difference was highly significant (P less than 0.0001). Significant differences were also found in the accuracy with which the three dentists identified each type of resin. The most common error was to identify the presence of clear resin on an untreated tooth.