Dental Sealants Part 3: Which material? Efficiency and effectiveness.

Determining the best choice between the different sealant materials might be complicated. The products that dentists can choose have different properties, such as caries' preventive effect, fluoride release and retention rate. According to the literature, fissure sealant materials fall into two main categories: resin-based sealants and glass ionomer sealants. Even if the "fluoride-releasing resin sealants" are better than "glass ionomer", with regards to retention of the material, the literature shows that their effectiveness in preventing fissure caries in permanent molars does not differ significantly over 24 months.