Survival of Fissure Sealants Placed in Private Practice after up to 6.5 Years

Objective: The purpose of this clinical study was to evaluate the success rate of fissure sealants which were incorporated in a dental office in Bremen/Germany. Methods: 299 fissure sealants were examined in a retrospective study by one examiner. All patients between 6 and 18 years presenting themselves to the dental office during 1993 – 1998 received at least one fissure sealant, resulting in 81 patients. Out of these, 69 (85.2%, 44 females, 25 males) could be included in the study. The remaining 12 patients were unknown distorted. The sealant material was Fissurit F (Voco, Cuxhaven, Germany). All sealants were placed without use of rubber dam by one dentist who was not the examiner. All patients attended the practice on a regular basis for follow-up examinations. Caries was diagnosed clinically and radiographically. The mean age of the study population was 15.7 years (SD 4.7) at the final examination. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was calculated for various failure criterias: partial or complete loss of the sealant and secondary caries. Results: No partial loss was observed after one year increasing to 11,5% after 5 and 13,0% after 6.5 years. After one year, no complete loss was observed. After 5 and 6.5 years 1.4% of the sealants were completely lost. Secondary caries was observed in 2.3% of the fissures after one year and 26.6% after five years. At the end of the observation period of 6.5 years, secondary caries was increased to 31.3%. Conclusion: The retention rate of fissure sealants placed in the framework of a private practice without the use of rubber dam can be regarded as comparable to the results that were found in studies were the sealants were placed under optimal conditions in a dental school.