Use Of Dental Sealants Research Articles

Type of insurance coverage and dental sealants among US children: findings from the National Survey of Children's Health.

Access to preventive dental services, such as dental sealants, varies based on several factors, including insurance coverage. The aim of this study was to examine the association between different types of insurance and dental sealant placement among US children. Data from the National Survey of Children Health (NSCH) cycle 2018 was analyzed. The sample size comprised 18,012 children aged 4-14 years. The main outcome was dental sealant placement in the past year (yes/no). The primary predictor was the type of insurance (public, private, both public and private, and uninsured). Bivariate and adjusted multivariate analysis was carried out to estimate weighted prevalence and adjusted odds ratios using SAS 9.4. The adjusted multivariate results showed that dental sealant use was the lowest among uninsured children compared to publicly insured children, followed by privately insured children, and finally mixed insured (public and private) children (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.70; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.57-0.86, AOR: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.54-1.14, AOR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.40-0.82, respectively). In conclusion, privately insured, mixed insured, and uninsured children had lower odds of dental sealant use compared to publicly insured children. There was a significant variation in the accessibility of dental sealants among US children based on their insurance coverage. Despite these disparities, every child should have access to dental sealants, regardless of insurance status.

The role of income and frequency of dental visits in the relationship between dental sealant use and resin fillings after extended coverage: a retrospective cohort study

BackgroundPrevention and treatment services use is closely associated with socioeconomic factors, such as income. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between implementing the sealant program and resin fillings restoration and to explore the role of income and frequency of dental visits in this relationship.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study used the cohort database from the National Health Information Database of the National Health Insurance Service. The study population comprised 494,731 children born in 2007. A logistic regression model for the experience of resin fillings and a linear regression model for weighted utilization of them were used to identify the independent effects of dental sealants, income, and frequency of dental visits. All analyses were conducted using the SAS Enterprise Guide version 7.1 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA).ResultsThe ratio based on income level was almost proportional in all groups except the medical aid group, which had a rate as high as that of the wealthier group. Children without sealants were 1.05 times more likely to have resin fillings than others after adjusting for income level and frequency of visiting dental clinics in the final model. However, an opposite relationship between sealant experiences and resin fillings was observed in the previous model without dental visits. The gap in the weighted resin filling scores according to socioeconomic variables showed a similar tendency.ConclusionsIncome and frequency of dental visits might be confounding factors for the relationship between dental sealant and resin fillings. It is necessary to consider the complex relationship between socioeconomic indicators and service use while studying oral health inequality.

A concise review of dental sealants in caries management.

This concise review provides an update of the use of dental sealants. Dental sealants protect a tooth from caries development by providing a physical barrier to microorganism colonisation and creating a favorable environment for patients to clean. Some sealants release fluoride ions to promote remineralization. Dental sealants can be applied on pits and fissures of primary and permanent teeth to prevent and arrest early enamel caries. They are effective in caries prevention. The preventive fraction of resin sealant is up to 61% after 5 years. Dental sealants can be classified as resin, glass ionomer and hybrid (compomer or giomer) according to the material. Recent studies from 2012 to 2022 showed resin sealant has a high retention rate of up to 80% after 2 years, whereas glass ionomer sealants is 44%. Chemical etching with 37% phosphoric acid is the standard of care, whereas laser or air-abrasion cannot does not increase the sealant retention rate. Moist control is critical and studies found the use of rubber dam and cotton rolls had similar success for sealant retention. The longevity of dental sealant is also associated with clinical operative factors, including approaches of moisture control, enamel pretreatment, selection of dental adhesive, and time of acid etching.

Dental Sealants for the Prevention of Dental Caries


 Three guidelines recommend the use of dental sealants to prevent or manage dental caries in children and adolescents. Sealants may be used as a preventive measure upon the eruption of molars, or as treatment to arrest or reverse noncavitated carious lesions. Sealants may be used alone or in combination with other treatments that protect against tooth decay.
 Overall, the guidelines were rigorous, comprehensive, and clearly reported, but there were gaps in guidance about implementation, choice of sealant material, and selection of patients.
 There is a need for methodologically rigorous guidelines on dental sealants for the prevention of dental caries that are developed for use in Canadian settings.

Variation in General Dentists' Patterns of Sealant Use in Children with Elevated Caries Risk.

Strong evidence supports use of dental sealants to prevent tooth decay, and professional guidelines recommend use in children with elevated caries risk. However, not all children indicated for sealants receive this preventive intervention, even when they use routine dental care. The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which dentists' use of sealants varied in pediatric patients with elevated caries risk. Claims and enrollment data from a private dental program were used to identify a cohort of 6- to 17-y-olds with elevated caries risk (N = 27,677) and general dentists (N = 818) who provided services to the children. Children were identified as having elevated caries risk based on history of restorative treatment over a 5-y period (2010-2014). The 2 outcomes of interest were whether a dentist provided any sealants to children with elevated risk and, if so, the extent to which these were used during a 2-y observation period (2013-2014). A 2-stage hurdle model was used for multivariable analysis to identify dentist characteristics associated with sealant use. Over the observation period, 13.3% (n = 109) of dentists did not provide any sealants to their elevated risk patients from the study cohort. Logistic regression found that female dentists were significantly more likely to have used sealants (odds ratio = 2.27); dentist age and practice in an isolated small rural town were negatively associated with any sealant use. However, among dentists who did place sealants (n = 709), female dentists, older dentists, dentists in solo practice, and those working full-time were significantly more likely to provide sealants to a child. Overall, substantial variation in practitioners' use of sealants was observed. This is the first study to explore provider-level variation in sealant use, representing a critical step in future efforts to increase routine use of sealants by dentists and eliminate oral health disparities. Findings from this study can be used to design targeted policy and behavioral interventions to increase sealant use by general dentists. This study provides foundational evidence for future research that explores motivation and barriers to routine use of preventive dental interventions by clinicians.

The Effect of Resin-Based Dental Sealant Containing Vanillin on Biofilm Formation of <i>Candida albicans</i>

Early childhood caries (ECC), or baby bottle tooth decay is one of the most common chronic diseases that affect young children at 6 years of age or younger. The disease is resulted from complex interactions between tooth structures and cariogenic microorganisms in dental biofilm after exposure to fermentable carbohydrates through improper feeding practices. This leads to a rapid development of demineralization of teeth shortly after they erupt in the oral cavity. Candida albicans have been reported recently to be associated with the pathogenesis of ECC. One of the general approaches currently used for the prevention of ECC is the application of dental sealant to occlusal (chewing surface) pits and fissures of caries-susceptible teeth. Many types of dental sealants have been extensively used and various antimicrobial agents were introduced to dental sealants to increase their caries preventive effect. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antimicrobial effect of vanillin incorporated resin-based dental sealant on C. albicans biofilm. Resin-based dental sealants (Clinpro; 3M ESPE, USA) containing different concentrations of vanillin (0%, 0.5%, 1% and 5% w/v) were prepared in 96-well plate. The suspension (107 colony forming unit/mL) of each strain of Candida albicans (ATCC 10231, ATCC 18804 and 2 clinical isolates) was added to saliva-coated sealant resin samples and incubated at 37°C in 5% CO2 atmosphere for 24 h to allow the Candida biofilm formation. The quantity of vital biofilm was determined by WST Microbial Cell Counting Kit (Dojindo Molecular Technologies, USA) at 460 nm. All tests were done in triplicate and repeated three times. Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn’s method were used to account for multiple comparisons. Statistical significance was set at p-value less than 0.05. The results showed that 0.5-5% vanillin-incorporated dental sealant resins showed a significant suppressive effect against all strains of Candida. No significant differences of anti-biofilm effects were found among Candida strains. Approximately 30-50% Candida biofilm reduction was noticed in sealant resins containing vanillin compared with controls without vanillin. In conclusion, the adding of vanillin (0.5-5% w/v) to dental sealant resins is effective in inhibiting biofilm formation of fungus related to early childhood caries, C. albicans. Therefore, the use of dental sealants containing vanillin has the potential to prevent this type of dental caries in young children and biofilm formation by oral Candida. Further clinical studies are required to investigate physical properties of this sealant and clinical evaluation in the patients.

Acculturation and dental sealant use among US children.

Healthcare (including dental care) service use is influenced by predisposing, enabling and need factors. One area with limited research is the association of acculturation (defined as behavioural changes in the adaptation to another culture) as a predisposing factor for dental care preventive service use. Preventive service use is a primary objective of Healthy People, 2030. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of acculturation with the preventive dental service use of dental pit-and-fissure sealant placement, among children in the United States, ages 6-18years. A cross-sectional, secondary data analysis study was completed using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2013-2016 data. NHANES is a nationally representative survey of noninstitutionalized individuals across the United States. In the data set, children, ages 6-18years, had been evaluated for pit-and-fissure dental sealant use. Information that served as proxies for acculturation was length of stay in the United States (a citizen at the time of the survey; not a citizen and in the country <5years; or not a citizen and in the country ≥5years) and whether English was spoken at home (yes; no). Data were analysed for descriptive statistics. Multivariable logistic regressions were used to examine strength of the associations. Odds ratios for pit-and-fissure sealants among groups were determined. There were 2220 children participants whose data were used for this study. Less than half (45.5%) had received dental pit-and-fissure sealants. A majority (53.3%) were white and were ages 12-18years (51.6%). The mean number of dental pit-and-fissure sealants among all children was 5.5. There was a lower percentage of children living in the United States <5years who had received pit-and-fissure sealants than children who were citizens of the United States (22.2% vs 48.9%, respectively). The adjusted odds ratio was lower for dental pit-and-fissure sealants among children who were in the United States <5years than children who were citizens of the United States (adjusted odds ratio, 0.38; 95% Confidence Interval: 0.24, 0.58). In this study, children who had lived in the United States <5years were less likely to have pit-and-fissure sealants than children who were citizens of the United States. There is a need to reach all children with preventive services to improve dental quality of life, reduce the need for dental restorations and decrease overall financial burden regardless of time in the United States.

Formation of Cariogenic Bacterial Biofilm on Vanillin-Incorporated Resin-Based Dental Sealant

Tooth decay or dental caries is an important oral health problem involving people of all age groups. The disease is the outcome of the demineralize process in which aciduric and acidogenic bacteria in a biofilm decompose tooth structure. Dental sealant, a resin material, which is applied on the occlusal pit and fissure surfaces of the teeth as a protective layer has been commonly used to prevent dental caries. However, the microbial effect on food residue is found to be a major cause of microleakage of sealant and secondary caries. Several types of antimicrobial agents were introduced to increase the caries preventive effect of dental sealants. Vanillin, the main component of flavoring agent vanilla, has been found to have antimicrobial property against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The objective of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial effect of vanillin-incorporated dental sealant against biofilm formation of cariogenic bacteria. Dental sealant resin samples (Clinpro; 3M ESPE, USA) were prepared in 96-well plate in accordance with the amount of vanillin adding (0%, 0.5%, 1% and 5% vanillin). The cariogenic bacterial suspensions of Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175 and Lactobacillus casei ATCC 334 were added to saliva-coated samples and incubated at 37°C in 5% CO2 atmosphere for 48 h to allow the biofilm formation. The quantity of vital biofilm was determined by WST Microbial Cell Counting Kit (Dojindo Molecular Technologies, USA) at 460 nm. One-way ANOVA and Tukey’s test were applied to the statistical analysis. A significant inhibitory effect against L. casei biofilm was observed in all vanillin incorporated samples (0.5%, 1% and 5% vanillin) compared with samples without vanillin. The percentage of biofilm reduction was 32-39%. For S. mutans, the suppressive effect was noticed only at &gt;1% vanillin with 18-25% biofilm reduction. In conclusion, the incorporation of vanillin to dental sealants could decrease biofilm formation of cariogenic bacteria (S. mutans and L. casei). The use of dental sealants containing vanillin could be a promising measure to prevent dental caries due to their antibacterial biofilm formation property.

Dental sealants: knowledge, opinion, values and practice of portuguese dental hygienists

Objectives: The aim of this study is to characterize the sample of responders and to present the data obtained from the evaluation on the knowledge, opinion, values, and practice (KOVP) of dental hygienists in Portugal concerning pit and fissures sealants. Methods: A non-probabilistic sample of 142 individuals was obtained from the members of the Portuguese Association of Dental Hygienists. Participants answered an online questionnaire composed of four demographic questions and 31 statements regarding KOVP about dental sealants, graded from 0 to 5, with 5 being the most agreement with the statement. The Wilcoxon matched-pairs sign ranks test, the Mann-Whitney test, the Kruskal-Wallis test, the Spearman’s correlation, and the V-Cramer test were used to analyze the data. Results: Portuguese dental hygienists present positive feedback about the use of dental sealants. The mean scores for each of the studied variables were: knowledge = 3.63 ± 0.29; opinion = 2.87 ± 0.42; value = 2.92 ± 0.44, and practice = 3.76 ± 0.46. Knowledge differed with years of experience (p&lt;0.01), and opinion and practice both also differed with type of clinical practice (p&lt;0.01 in both). Statistically positive significant correlations were found between knowledge and practice (p&lt;0.01). Conclusions: Portuguese dental hygienists have positive feelings about pit and fissure sealants. The positive correlation between knowledge and practice can be used to further increase the use of dental sealants in Portugal.

Does the Registered Dentists' Program Alleviate the Socioeconomic Gap in the Use of Dental Sealants?

Many countries provide preventive dental care for children to reduce inequalities. In Korea, the registered dentists’ program was implemented to promote oral health and prevent oral diseases in primary school students. This study aimed to evaluate the registered dentist program through the sealant utilization rate using national cohort data and to compare the socioeconomic gap of the cohorts by participation. The sample cohort data were obtained from the National Health Insurance Sharing Service (NHISS) in South Korea. The utilization of dental sealants was analyzed using the chi-square test according to the independent variables of each year. To identify the independent effects of participation in the registered dentists’ program, a panel logistic regression analysis of the utilization of dental sealants was performed. The participants were 1.35 times more likely to have dental sealants than non-participants. The significance of income quintiles disappeared in the case groups. The gap became more obvious in the employees of the control group even after adjusting for all variables. Implementing oral health programs can alleviate inequality with a relative increase in utilization in vulnerable populations.

Factors Associated with Use of Dental Sealants among Dental Professionals in Mangalore-A Cross Sectional Study

Introduction: Dental caries is one of the most infectious diseases in the world. Dental sealants have been proved as effective way to prevent caries, hence can play a vital role in preventing caries. Objective: The primary objective of the study is to obtain insight into dental sealant status and factors associated with sealant use among dental professionals in Mangalore, by a questionnaire method. Method: A cross sectional, questionnaire based study was done on both private practitioners and professionals working in various colleges in Mangalore, to assess knowledge, attitude, behaviour, perceived effectiveness, willingness to apply sealants, familiarity with recent guidelines and barriers to the use dental sealants in Mangalore city. Results: A total of 134 respondents took part in study. Half of the respondents (50%) said that they had never applied sealants. A majority (96.3%) of them said that they were willing to apply sealants as a preventive measure. On correlation analysis there was a statistically significant association between knowledge and attitude (p = 0.001, r = 0.296), behaviour (p = 0.001, r = 0.280) and perceived effectiveness (p=0.001, r=272). There was also statistically significant association between attitude and behaviour (p &lt; 0.001, r = 0.433), perceived effectiveness (p &lt; 0.001, r = 0.521) and barriers (p=0.014,r=0.228).Overall 86.6% of the respondents reported that dental sealants are underused with poor attitude of patients towards sealants being the major barrier for their use followed by unawareness of treatment choice in patients. Conclusion: The present study highlights the need to change the dental curriculum regarding dental sealants and has definite policy implications for preventive re orientation of dental education and dental practice for long term oral health benefits to the populace. The results also throw light on a number of barriers to the use dental sealants in a developing nation like India, thus indicates the need for patient education and awareness programs for the population in terms of oral health.

Children's Dental Sealant Use and Caries Prevalence Affected by National Health Insurance Policy Change: Evidence from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2015).

We evaluated the effect of the National Health Insurance (NHI) policy including dental sealant on changes in the prevalence of sealant and caries, and examined how NHI affected sealant utilization and untreated caries in children from diverse income groups in South Korea. We used a multivariate logistic regression analysis to explore the effects of three stages of dental sealant policy (pre-policy: 2007–2009, first post-policy: 2010–2012, and second post-policy: 2013–2015) on the prevalence of dental sealant and untreated caries. Participant data (N = 8161, aged 6–14 years) were derived from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007–2015). We also conducted subgroup analysis to determine the effects of the NHI policy on dental sealant and untreated caries by income level. Implementation of dental insurance coverage was associated with higher likelihood of using dental sealant (odds ratio (OR) = 1.39 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.18–1.63) for the first period and OR = 1.58 (95% CI: 1.33–1.87) for the second period) and lower odds of having untreated caries (OR = 0.79 (95% CI: 0.64–0.98) for the first period and OR = 0.65 (95% CI: 0.51–0.83) for the second period) after controlling for covariates. Results revealed that there was a greater prevalence of dental sealant and a lower prevalence of untreated caries in both middle- and low-income households compared to high-income households. The higher prevalence of dental sealant and lower untreated caries after the policy implementation. Moreover, we demonstrated children from low-or middle-income households were more associated with increasing dental sealant use and a declining prevalence of caries.

Vital Signs: Dental Sealant Use and Untreated Tooth Decay Among U.S. School-Aged Children.

Tooth decay is one of the greatest unmet treatment needs among children. Pain and suffering associated with untreated dental disease can lead to problems with eating, speaking, and learning. School-based dental sealant programs (SBSP) deliver a highly effective intervention to prevent tooth decay in children who might not receive regular dental care. SBSPs benefits exceed their costs when they target children at high risk for tooth decay. CDC used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2014 to estimate current prevalences of sealant use and untreated tooth decay among low-income (≤185% of federal poverty level) and higher-income children aged 6-11 years and compared these estimates with 1999-2004 NHANES data. The mean number of decayed and filled first molars (DFFM) was estimated for children with and without sealants. Averted tooth decay resulting from increasing sealant use prevalence was also estimated. All reported differences are significant at p<0.05. From 1999-2004 to 2011-2014, among low- and higher-income children, sealant use prevalence increased by 16.2 and 8.8 percentage points to 38.7% and 47.8%, respectively. Among low-income children aged 7-11 years, the mean DFFM was almost three times higher among children without sealants (0.82) than among children with sealants. Approximately 6.5 million low-income children could potentially benefit from the delivery of sealants through SBSP. The prevalence of dental sealant use has increased; however, most children have not received sealants. Increasing sealant use prevalence could substantially reduce untreated decay, associated problems, and dental treatment costs.

Knowledge and Practice of Pit and Fissure Sealants among dentists in Chennai

The study consisted of a questionnaire to determine the knowledge and utilization levels of sealants by undergraduate. Sealants are highly effective in preventing dental caries in the pits and fissures of teeth. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among students in Saveetha dental college. A self-administered structured questionnaire consisting of 10 items was used to assess their knowledge and practice regarding dental sealants The results suggest that dental practitioners had sufficient knowledge about dental sealants. They also acknowledge the importance of use of dental sealants and practice of dental sealants in clinics was found adequate.

Knowledge, value, opinion and practice about usage of pit and fissure sealant among dental professionals in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Aim:A study was aimed to assess the knowledge, value, opinion, and practice regarding the use of dental sealants among private dental practitioners in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.Materials and Methods:A self-administrated questionnaire were distributed to 192 private dental practitioners in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India by using simple random sampling. A convenience sampling technique was employed. The questionnaire consisted of 28 items, which included information about knowledge, value, opinion, and practice regarding dental sealants. The questionnaire was obtained from the study by San Martin et al. 2013 and Kailash Asawa et al. 2014. Frequency distribution was tabulated. For frequency distribution strongly, strongly agree, and agree were combined as “agree” and strongly disagree and disagree were combined as “disagree.” There were no changes in “neutral.”Results:Among the 196 study subjects 56.2% were males and 43.8% were females with their clinical experience of 52.1% for <5 years, 35.4% for 5–10 years, and 13.5% for >15 years. The mean scores for knowledge, value, opinion, and practice were 41.8 ± 3.7, 18.7 ± 2.8, 18.1 ± 1.4, and 12.9 ± 2.3, respectively.Conclusion:The results suggest that dental practitioners had satisfactory knowledge about pit and fissure sealant and had neutral attitudes about sealants being effective. Dental practitioners adequately used the pit and fissure sealants but they did not follow the standardized procedures and specific guidelines.

Dental sealant knowledge, opinion, values and practice of Spanish dental hygienists.

Dental sealants have proved to be an effective approach to prevent pit and fissure caries. This study examines the knowledge, opinion, values and practice (KOVP) of dental hygienists concerning sealant use in the southwest region of Andalusia, Spain. Spanish dental hygienists (n=400) volunteered to complete a 31-item, self-administered, pretested questionnaire to assess their knowledge, opinion, values and practice regarding pit and fissure sealants. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed ranks test, the Friedman nonparametric repeated-measures anova and Spearman's correlation were used to analyse the data. The mean scores for knowledge, opinion, values and practice were 3.57±0.41; 2.17±0.42; 2.58±0.77 and 3.56±0.46, respectively. Knowledge differed by years of experience (P<0.01) and place of work (P<0.01); opinion differed by years of experience (P=0.03) and sector (P<0.01). Similarly, practice about sealants differed by years of experience (P<0.01). Conversely, values around sealant placement did not statistically differ by sex, years of experience, practice sector or place of work. Statistically, significant correlations were found between knowledge, opinion and value, while it was found no significant correlation between practice and the other variables (P>0.05). Most dental hygienists have sufficient knowledge about pit and fissure sealants. They also acknowledge the importance of use of dental sealants and have positive opinion/attitude about using sealants. Practice of dental sealants in clinics was found adequate. However, they were not following the specific guidelines and standardized procedures.

Dentists’ levels of evidence-based clinical knowledge and attitudes about using pit-and-fissure sealants

Although the prevalence of pit-and-fissure sealants in children in the United States is low, the problem is magnified in low-income children. A small proportion of Florida's low-income children receive any preventive dental services, including sealants. The authors conducted a cross-sectional study to assess whether Florida's dentists provide sealants as a preventive measure in their practices, their attitudes and their levels of evidence-based clinical knowledge about appropriate sealant use according to the American Dental Association (ADA) recommendations. The authors also assessed whether the number of years since graduation and reliance on peers or colleagues for regular clinical information were associated with dentists' knowledge. The authors administered a 25-item pretested questionnaire to a convenience sample of general and pediatric dentists (n = 163) at the 2013 Florida National Dental Convention in Kissimmee, Fla. The authors conducted multivariate linear regression modeling to predict dentists' levels of evidence-based clinical knowledge. Years since graduation (P = .2) and reliance on peers or colleagues for regular clinical information (P = .6) did not predict higher knowledge. Male dentists (P = .003) and those who accepted children enrolled in Medicaid as new patients (P = .01) had significantly more knowledge compared with their counterparts. Most participating dentists used sealants in their practices and had high levels of positive attitudes about using sealants. Overall knowledge regarding the appropriate use of sealants, however, was low. For practicing dental professionals, the authors recommend disseminating evidence-based recommendations for the use of dental sealants via continuing education courses and other possible modalities. They also recommend that dental schools update their existing courses or modules about sealants by integrating the ADA's recommendations.

Dental Sealants: Knowledge, Value, Opinion, and Practice among Dental Professionals of Bathinda City, India.

Objective. The purpose of the study was to assess the knowledge, value, opinion, and practice regarding use of dental sealants among private dental practitioners in Bathinda City, Punjab, India. Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among all private dental practitioners in Bathinda City, Punjab. A self-administered structured questionnaire consisting of 28 items was used to assess their knowledge, value, opinion, and practice regarding dental sealants. One-way analysis of variance, independent sample t-test, and multivariate regression analysis were utilized for statistical analysis. Confidence level and level of significance were set at 95% and 5%, respectively. Results. The mean scores for knowledge, value, opinion, and practice were 41.8 ± 3.7, 18.7 ± 2.8, 18.1 ± 1.4, and 12.9 ± 2.3, respectively. Analysis revealed that qualification was statistically significant among all dependent variables (P ≤ 0.05); work experience was significantly associated with both knowledge and opinion means scores (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusion. The results suggest that dental practitioners had sufficient knowledge about dental sealants. They also acknowledge the importance of use of dental sealants. Practice of dental sealants in clinics was found adequate but they were not following the specific guidelines and standardized procedures.

Prevalence and socioeconomic determinants of dental sealant use among schoolchildren in Saudi Arabia

There are no published research reports on the prevalence of dental sealant use in children in Saudi Arabia. This study determined the prevalence and socioeconomic indicators of dental sealant use on the permanent molars of a stratified random sample of schoolchildren in Jeddah. A basic oral screening survey of students was conducted by dentists and a self-administered questionnaire was completed by parents. The prevalence of dental sealant use among 1668 3rd and 8th grade students was 9.0%. Students who attended public schools and those who had fathers with lowerthan high-school education were less likely to have sealants. A stepwise logistic regression model showed that socioeconomic status of school district, family's monthly income, family's type of home, having medical insurance and receiving government financial support were significantly associated with sealant use. Efforts to increase sealant use and to reduce socioeconomic disparities appear warranted in the light of high rates of dental disease.

Prevalence and socioeconomic determinants of dental sealant use among schoolchildren in Saudi Arabia

Prevalence and socioeconomic determinants of dental sealant use among schoolchildren in Saudi Arabia