A 1-year appraisal of pit and fissure sealants following disinfection with and without chlorhexidine solution: An in vivo randomized trial.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of chlorhexidine on the outcome of pit and fissure sealant (PFS) in permanent molars. METHODS: A double-blind randomized controlled trial using split-mouth design was conducted for a period of 1 year. The clinical trial registry was done in the Indian Council of Medical Research, and the clinical trial number obtained was CTRI/2016/08/007222. The age group of participants involved in the trial was 7-14 years. Maxillary or mandibular permanent molar which satisfies the criteria for application of PFS was included in the trial. Based on the eligibility criteria and considering the unknown observer/instrumentation errors, the sample size is 33 for each group. Simple randomization of treatment allocation was carried out using computer-generated random number for treatment assignment of the right molar tooth. The left molar received the alternative treatment. The outcomes of PFS were evaluated by a lone proficient assessor by means of the mouth mirrors and probes following the US public health service criteria. RESULTS: A 6-month evaluation for the PFS with and without chlorhexidine showed 77.27% and 89.39% retention, respectively. PFS without chlorhexidine suffered a greater loss of surface texture and marginal discoloration in comparison to PFS with chlorhexidine at 3-, 6-, and 12-month intervals, but it was statistically insignificant. CONCLUSION: The present study showed improvement in outcome of PFS when an additional step of chlorhexidine is added although the results were statistically nonsignificant.