Objective: Most countries and states support the idea of a school-based dental
program and its benefits in preventing dental disease among school
children. In American Samoa, one of the preventive dental services
involves the application of fissure sealant to the permanent molars of
the third graders aged 7-8 years old. The objective of this
paper is to evaluate the retention rate of the sealant materials after
one year of application. This is a pilot evaluation report for the
school-based dental program in American Samoa.
Methods: 615 participants
had their permanent third molars sealed during the normal school-based
dental program in the 2005-2006 school year. 609 of those participants
were screened for sealant retention in May 2007, one year after applying
the sealant.
Results: Of the 609 screened, 382 participants (62%), six
in ten, still retained the sealants in their mouth, which is
considerably satisfactory compared to other similar study findings. The
failure rate is a wake-up call for improvement in operators' technique
approach to fissure sealant application. Teeth with failed sealants that
had developed caries, 55%, demanded further referral for urgent
treatment. There was no significant difference in the result with the
six participants that were not found for the follow up screening.
Conclusions: More updates on current techniques among operators, and
utilizing better retained sealant materials available on the market,
should be encouraged in order to improve the retention rate in the
future. Continuing evaluations will identify the level of success or
failure of our school-based dental program for preventing caries in
children of American Samoa.