In vitro comparison of microleakage of two conventional and hydrophilic fissure sealants in isolated and saliva-contaminated environments

Introduction: In recent decades, pit and fissure sealants have been introduced to dentistry as an effective clinical method for prevention of pit and fissure caries. Since only a limited number of studies have been carried out on hydrophilic fissure sealants, this experimental study was undertaken to compare microleakage of a hydrophilic fissure sealant with that of a conventional fissure sealant in vitro in an isolated saliva-contaminated environment. Materials and methods: In this in vitro study, 64 extracted mandibular third molars with no decay, fillings and cracks were selected and divided into 4 groups randomly. The teeth in groups 1 and 2 were treated with Clinpro conventional sealant in isolated and saliva-contaminated environments, respectively. The teeth in groups 3 and 4 were treated with Smartseal & Loc hydrophilic sealant in isolated and saliva-contaminated environments, respectively. After thermocycling, the samples in each group were separately immersed in 0.5% fuchsin solution. Then the samples were sectioned buccolingually. Microleakage was studied under a stereomicroscope at a magnification of ×24. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were used for analysis of data (α=0.05). Results: The minimum and maximum microleakage means were observed in groups 1 and 2, respectively. Statistically there was no significant differences in microleakage between groups 1 and 3 (p value = 0.61) and groups 2 and 4 (p value = 0.84), whereas there were significant differences between groups 1 and 2 (p value < 0.001) and groups 3 and 4 (p value < 0.001). Conclusion: Under the limitations of the present study, hydrophilic fissure sealants do not appear to be superior to conventional hydrophobic fissure sealants in relation to microleakage.  Key words: Fissure sealants, Microleakage, Saliva.