Evaluation of the success rate of pit and fissure sealants on first molars: 12 months follow-up study.

INTRODUCTION: Dental caries by far is the most prevalent concern of the preadolescents and adolescents in dental clinics. Despite the provision of local fluoride, the occlusal surfaces of teeth are susceptible to dental caries. Pit and fissure sealant therapy is a preventive method to decrease dental caries in permanent teeth. The present study aimed to evaluate the success of fissure sealant treatments of first molar teeth, at 3, 6 and 12 months follow-ups. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-five children were randomly selected. The subjects had already received fissure sealants in the department of public health dentistry. Demographic data, including age and gender, sealant failure and the type of failure were recorded in the relevant checklists. Feigal criteria were used to evaluate the success or failure of fissure sealant treatments. RESULTS: Overall success rate was 74.3% for 1 year. Evaluation of the failure rate showed that at the 3-month interval, 20.6% of the sealants exhibited failure (57.1% due to margin discoloration and 42.9% due to lack of margin adaptation). 28.6% of the sealants failed at the 6-month (75% due to marginal discoloration and 25% due to anatomical form) and 41.2% failed at the 12-month interval (57.1% due to marginal discoloration and 42.9% due to the lack of margin adaptation). CONCLUSION: The total failure rate of fissure sealant failures after 1 year was 27.7%. The most frequent reason for the failure of fissure sealants was marginal discoloration.

A study on the eruption timing of permanent dentition in patients with cerebral palsy.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to determine the average eruption time and sequence of permanent teeth in patients with cerebral palsy (CP) and to compare the results with the established norms for Iranian subjects. METHODS: This cross-sectional study comprised of 207 individuals with CP, 96 boys and 111 girls, ranging from 6 to 19 years. The average age at eruption of permanent teeth, excluding third molars, was given as the mean (± SD) and median in years for each gender. A table of percentiles of the eruption time was also determined. Comparisons were made using t-test at a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: The sequence of eruption in children with CP was almost similar to the normal. With the exception of the second premolar and the second molar, tooth eruption was advanced in girls compared with boys. There was no difference between the left and right sides of each arch. Mandibular teeth had an earlier eruption time than maxillary teeth except for the second premolar. In general, eruption times of children with CP were later (1-33 months) than those reported previously for healthy children. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the almost similar sequence of eruption, a high tendency to delayed eruption of permanent dentition was observed in children with CP.