In vitro comparison of the bond strength to the enamel of conventional and self-etching dental fissure sealants

Authors:

ABSTRACT

Aim

Dental caries in pits and fissures of molars is still very common in young people, despite a gradual reduction in their
incidence and prevalence. Prevention with the aid of dental fissure sealants can help to reduce the onset of decay. In vitro tests were
conducted to compare the bond strength to enamel of self-etching sealants versus those applied using the conventional procedure.

Methods

The lingual surface of 40 extracted, caries-free, mandibular third molars was milled to make them flat. The prepared teeth
were randomly divided into two groups of 20 teeth each: those in Group A were treated with Clinpro (3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN, USA);
those in Group B with Quick Seal (BJM Laboratories Ltd, Or-Yehuda, Israel). Cylinders of sealant were attached to the enamel of the flat
surfaces of the samples using a polymerisation process treating the surfaces involved according to the type of material. All samples
underwent load testing by means of a universal test machine.

Results

The results of the load testing, measured in MPa, were
analised using the Student's t-test for independent samples and the differences proved significant, indicating that the traditionally-
applied sealant (mean strength 21.06 MPa) assured a significantly stronger bond (p <.05) than the self-etching sealant (mean strength 10.43 MPa) under our experimental conditions. CONCLUDION Conventional sealants generally provide a considerably higher bond strength than self-etching sealants.

PLUMX METRICS