In vitro evaluation of microleakage of different materials used as pit-and-fissure sealants

The aim of this study was to evaluate in vitro the marginal microleakage of different materials used as pit-and-fissure sealants (Delton, Filtek Flow, Dyract Flow and Vitremer). Fifty-six extracted sound human third molars were randomly assigned to 4 groups (n=14). After sealant placement, the teeth were thermocycled (500 cycles; 5 degrees C, 37 degrees C and 55 degrees C), isolated, immersed in 2% buffered methylene blue dye for 4 h, included in acrylic resin and sectioned longitudinally in a buccolingual direction. The sections were analyzed for leakage using an stereomicroscope. A 4-criteria ranked scale was used to score dye penetration. All materials exhibited dye penetration to some extension and no statistically significant difference was observed among the groups (p>0.05). In conclusion, the findings of this study showed that a flowable composite resin, a flowable compomer and resin-modified glass ionomer placed on occlusal pits and fissures had similar marginal sealing as the unfilled self-cured resin-based sealant.