Preventive effect of fissure sealant on dental caries - Long-term observation results on Juvenile First Molars

Caries incidence was investigated for child patients who had been under long-term observation after treatment in order to clarify the caries-preventive effect of fissure sealants (FS).Of the child patients (with the average age of six years two months) who received an FS treatment immediately after the eruption of the first molar, 90 child patients (45 boys and 45 girls) who had been observed for the average of five years and three months were used as the subjects of this study.Material used was glass ionomer cement.A dental caries examination of the left and right first molars of the upper and lower jaws was conducted, and the results were compared with the figures reported in the 2016 Dental Disease Actual Condition Survey (Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare).The results were that out of the 90 children, the first molar suffering dental caries numbered six (6.7%) and seven (7.8%) on the right and left side of the upper jaw, seven (7.8%) and six (6.7%) and on the right and left side of the lower jaw, respectively.The first molar caries incidence rate in the same-age child patients from 2016 Dental Disease Actual Condition Survey (Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare), excluding those who received FS treatments, was 24.0% while the first molar caries incident rate in this study was 7.3% on the average.It was clarified that FS has a long-term caries-preventive effect.