[Indications and limitations of sealants use in incipient carious lesions]

Abstract

The application of occlusal sealants has been well established as an effective and safe measure in preventing dental caries since many years. Although the use of pit and fissure sealants on incipient occlusal carious lesions has been suggested as a safe procedure, several points and questions still exist. The aim of this paper was to search the literature present the pertinent studies and critically evaluating the results to give some answers for the better use of sealants on occlusal incipient carious lesions. The clinical practitioner is going to find some answers in this paper on: 1) whether there is a need for using sealants on incipient lesions, 2) what might be the progress of an undetected incipient lesion sealed with a sealant in terms of the overall benefit or dentiment to the tooth and 3) in the case where there is a detectable lesion, what might be the efficacy of the sealants in consolidating, retarding, or preventing the progress of such a lesion. Most of the studies agree that incipient lesions at an early stage and before a cavitation occurs should sealed and followed closely. Regarding the therapeutic use of sealants there is no a definite or conclusive answer. The practitioner should be very concious and skeptical since there are many unanswered questions and not enough data supporting such a procedure.