A 1-year appraisal of pit and fissure sealants following disinfection with and without chlorhexidine solution: An in vivo randomized trial

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of chlorhexidine on the outcome of pit and fissure sealant (PFS) in permanent molars. Methods: A double-blind randomized controlled trial using split-mouth design was conducted for a period of 1 year. The clinical trial registry was done in the Indian Council of Medical Research, and the clinical trial number obtained was CTRI/2016/08/007222. The age group of participants involved in the trial was 7–14 years. Maxillary or mandibular permanent molar which satisfies the criteria for application of PFS was included in the trial. Based on the eligibility criteria and considering the unknown observer/instrumentation errors, the sample size is 33 for each group. Simple randomization of treatment allocation was carried out using computer-generated random number for treatment assignment of the right molar tooth. The left molar received the alternative treatment. The outcomes of PFS were evaluated by a lone proficient assessor by means of the mouth mirrors and probes following the US public health service criteria. Results: A 6-month evaluation for the PFS with and without chlorhexidine showed 77.27% and 89.39% retention, respectively. PFS without chlorhexidine suffered a greater loss of surface texture and marginal discoloration in comparison to PFS with chlorhexidine at 3-, 6-, and 12-month intervals, but it was statistically insignificant. Conclusion: The present study showed improvement in outcome of PFS when an additional step of chlorhexidine is added although the results were statistically nonsignificant.