Are sealants effective in preventing caries in primary molars?

Abstract

Data sources Four electronic databases, including Cochrane Oral Health's Trial Register, Cochrane CENTRAL, Medline and Embase were searched for finding the relevant literature. Two trial registries and references of the included papers were also searched.

Study selection Both parallel-group and split-mouth randomised control trials were included. These involved comparison of different types of dental sealants or their comparison with a placebo/no sealant. There was no restriction regarding language or publication date.

Data extraction and synthesis Two authors independently extracted the data from the selected papers which included study characteristics, details about participants, intervention, control, outcomes etc. Owing to inherent heterogeneity and inability to pool up the data, meta-analysis was not carried out and the results were summarised using narrative synthesis.

Results A total of nine studies were included. Irrespective of the type of sealants, all the included studies have depicted the direction of the effect favouring the sealant use but the evidence is very low. Individual studies that compared sealants with placebo exhibited better performance by glass ionomer cement-based sealants (Odds ratio [OR] = 0.033; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.007-0.149) than resin-based sealants (OR = 0.76; 95% CI = 0.41-1.42).

Conclusions Low quality evidence was found regarding the effectiveness of sealants for prevention of caries in primary molars.