Twelve-month sealant retention in a school-based program using a self-etching primer/adhesive

OBJECTIVES: Very little independent research has been done on the new self-etching primer/adhesives in dentistry. A recent clinical study compared two sealant application techniques involving self-etching primer adhesives and the traditional phosphoric acid etch. The purpose of this study was to compare these two techniques in an Iowa school-based sealant program. METHODS: Twelve-month sealant retention data on 208 students from the Des Moines, Iowa, school-based sealant program were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: Sealant retention reported at the person level showed that 60 percent of the students who received sealants at the five schools had to be recalled at one year to have one or more surfaces resealed. A logistic regression model at the person level demonstrated that the phosphoric acid technique was six times as likely to have retention of all the sealed tooth surfaces as those sealed with Prompt-L-Pop. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, many students had to be recalled to the chair 12 months after sealant application due to incomplete retention. Though sealants were retained in larger numbers with phosphoric acid, overall sealant retention at the tooth level was lower than previously published for clinical studies and school-based programs. Examining retention data at the person level, however, allows program administrators to plan resources more effectively and reevaluate sealant protocol to ensure as few children return for sealant reapplication.