THE EFFICACY OF DENTAL SEALANTS FOR AN ADULT-POPULATION

A 1-year pilot study was conducted to determine the retentive capaciti es of dental sealants on adult teeth. It proposed to utilize the knowl edge and experience gained in sealant application, as a means of attac king the problem of the increase in restored teeth at risk in the agin g population. Eighty patients aged 30-50 had Delton tinted sealant app lied on one to four contralateral nonhomologous, first or second, acce ptable molar pairs. Fifty-five patients completed the evaluation at 1 year, with a 68% retention for 250 teeth: teeth listed as sound, 94.1% ; IC and IC-amalgam, 93.7%, and amalgam, 44.9%.