RESEARCH ARTICLE
Retention Loss of Resin Based Fissure Sealants - a Valid Predictor for Clinical Outcome?
Steffen Mickenautsch*, Veerasamy Yengopal
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2013Volume: 7
First Page: 102
Last Page: 108
Publisher ID: TODENTJ-7-102
DOI: 10.2174/18742106201305130001
Article History:
Received Date: 1/3/2013Revision Received Date: 25/4/2013
Acceptance Date: 28/4/2013
Electronic publication date: 23/8/2013
Collection year: 2013
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Purpose:
The null-hypothesis that retention loss of resin fissure sealants predicts caries manifestation no more accurately than random values was tested.
Methods:
Systematic reviews were checked and electronic databases searched for clinical trials. Trials reporting on the retention of resin sealants and caries occurrence in permanent molar teeth, with minimum 24-month follow-up period, were included. Extracted data: number of sealed teeth, number of teeth without completely retained sealants, number of sealed teeth with caries. The number of teeth with complete sealant retention and absence of carious lesions/cavities was calculated; the predictive outcomes: true/false positive; false/true negative were established. Random values were generated as control-data. Diagnostic Odds ratios (DOR) were computed and tested for statistical difference. Summary Receiver Operating Characteristic curves were plotted.
Results:
95 trials were found. Median DOR values were 1.21 and 0.28 for test- and control data, respectively. Wilcoxon test (z = 0.56; p = 0.58) and Sign test (z = 1.38; p = 0.17) results were statistically non-significant. The null-hypothesis was not rejected.
Conclusions:
Predictions based on the retention loss of resin sealants, regarding caries manifestation, was no more accurate than random guesses. Sealant retention loss appears not to be a valid predictor for clinical outcome.
