Clinical sealant retention following two different tooth-cleaning techniques

Objectives: This study compared the effectiveness of two different tooth-cl eaning techniques on clinical sealant retention. Methods: Seventy-four chil dren in second and third grades at an elementary school in the rural town o f Waverly, Tennessee, had sealants applied to four, noncarious, fully erupt ed, first permanent molar teeth. The teeth had been cleaned using a brush a ttached to a rotary instrument with fluoridated prophy paste, versus a toot hbrush without paste (dry brushing). A split-mouth design was used, whereby one side (upper and lower) of the mouth was subject to one tooth-cleaning technique while the opposite side received the other technique. Results: Tw elve months after a single application of pit and fissure sealant, 63 child ren were available for recall. Exactly 252 teeth were examined and overall retention was high, with approximately 98 percent of sealants retained. Alt hough the greatest loss of sealant occurred with the rotary instrument tech nique, the difference in proportions of missing sealant between techniques was not statistically significant. Conclusions: In this study, the tooth-cl eaning technique of dry brushing with a toothbrush as a preparatory step in the sealant procedure yielded high clinical sealant retention at 12 months . This retention was comparable to that observed with rotary instrumentatio n. This finding suggests that dry brushing by the operator may be an accept able alternative to using a rotary instrument with brush and paste.