Assessment of Penetration Depth and Microleakage of Different Pit and Fissure Sealants Using Dye Penetration Method: An Study.

Aim And Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the depth of penetration as well as the microleakage of three different pit and fissure sealant materials employing the dye penetration method.

Materials And Methods: Sixty healthy human mandibular premolar teeth without dental caries that were extracted for orthodontic treatment constituted the study samples. These 60 premolar samples were subjected to an equal division (20 in every group) into three groups. Group I: self-adhering flowable composite, group II: flowable nanocomposites, group III: classical pit and fissure sealants. Every sample tooth underwent thermocycling amid 4°C ± 2°C and 60°C ± 2°C for 1,000 cycles. The samples were placed in 1% methylene blue solution for 24 hours to permit diffusion of the dye into probable gaps in between the restoration and the tooth. The teeth were sectioned and evaluated below a stereomicroscope at 10× magnification with image analysis software.

Results: Flowable nanocomposites (3.69 ± 0.10) exhibited a slightly greater mean depth of penetration as compared to classical pit and fissure sealants (3.58 ± 0.16) and self-adhering flowable composites (3.51 ± 0.13) in that order. This difference between the three sealants was not significant statistical. Amid the three sealant study groups, the lowest mean marginal microleakage was exhibited by the flowable nanocomposites (1.06 ± 0.03), followed by self-adhering flowable composites (1.98 ± 0.06), and classical pit and fissure sealants (2.74 ± 0.11). Analysis of variance revealed statistically significant differences among the three sealants that were studied.

Conclusion: This study concludes that flowable nanocomposites depicted enhanced penetration and reduced marginal leakage as compared to the self-adhering flowable composites and classical pit and fissure sealants.

Clinical Significance: An efficient approach to preventing dental caries on the occlusal surfaces of teeth is the use of pit and fissure sealants. The efficiency of sealants chiefly depends on the morphological characteristics of the fissures and properties of dental materials used.