Effect of Hydrogen Peroxide Application on Sealant Adaptation and Microleakage

Organic debris can inhibit complete penetration of sealant into pits and fissures which may affect retention and leakage. Objective: To determine if hydrogen peroxide (HP) use in fissures before sealant application improves adaptation or reduces leakage. Methods: Twenty caries-free extracted human molars with untreated occlusal fissures were used. The central grooves were divided into mesial and distal halves with a conservative slot prep filled with resin (LC Block-Out, Ultradent). The half grooves were randomly assigned to one of two groups- HP pre-treatment (3% HP applied for 30s, then 10s water rinse, and 10s air dry) or No HP (Control). Both groups were sealed with UltraSeal XT® plus (Ultradent), using the following protocol- 30s acid etch, 15s water rinse, 10s air dry, 5s PrimaDry®, 10s air dry, sealant application, and light-curing (20s at 400mW/cm2). After 24h storage in 100% humidity, the teeth were thermocycled in water (500 cycles, 5°-55°C), painted with nail polish to within 1 mm of the sealant margins, and immersed in 0.5% fuchsin dye for 24h. The teeth were then embedded in acrylic and cut by diamond saw into 0.8 mm thick sections for stereomicroscopic examination at 20x. The sealed fissure sections were categorized as: Complete Fill (C) or Incomplete Fill (I); AND No leakage (N) or Leakage present (L). The four groups (CN, IN, CL, IL) were assigned scores (0, 1, 2, 3 respectively) and analyzed with non-parametric statistics. Results: 60% of all fissures were completely filled and 80% showed no leakage. There were no significant differences in group scores between HP-treated fissures and control (Mann-Whitney; p = 0.3246). Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, there was no significant difference in sealant adaptation or microleakage between fissures pre-treated with HP or not.