Comparison of Sealant Longevity in a Long-term Toothbrushing Simulation

Objectives: To compare the retention of LED Pro Seal (PS) and UltraSeal XT hydro (US) sealants in vitro.
Methods: 36 teeth were pumiced for 10 seconds, etched for 15 seconds, rinsed for 5 seconds, lightly air dried for 3 seconds and randomly allocated to either the PS or US group. The teeth were placed into the Proto-Tech Toothbrush simulator with a 1:3 toothpaste water slurry circulating through the machine and brushed for the equivalent of 6, 12, 24, and 48 months. Each tooth was photographed before brushing and again at each time interval. The photographs were uploaded Analyze 12.0 and the areas covered by the sealant were calculated. Reliability tests of 8 replicates showed no statistically significant systematic differences, and a method error (√(Σdeviations²/2n) of 5.5%.
Results: Prior to brushing, the sealants covered 52.1-63.1% of the tooth surfaces. The Pro Seal group showed 2.2%, 8.6%, 14.9%, and 19.3% sealant lost after 6, 12, 24, and 48 months, respectively. The UltraSeal group showed 3.8%, 6.0%, 9.9%, 12.3% sealant lost over the same time periods. Analyses of covariance, controlling for the initial between-group difference in sealant coverage, showed statistically significant differences in sealant loss over 48 months.
Conclusions: Within the limits of this pilot study, sealant loss occurs with both PS and US, with greater losses occurring with Pro Seal than UltraSeal.