ArticleBMC oral health2009
Pit and fissure sealants in dental public health - application criteria and general policy in Finland.
Article in BMC oral health, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sealing versus partial caries removal in primary molars: a randomized clinical trial.BMC oral health · 2014Trial
- Effect of a bioactive pit and fissure sealant on demineralized human enamel: in vitro study.BMC oral health · 2022Article
- Fissure sealants or fluoride varnish? Factors associated with choice of management method for occlusal caries in Public Dental Service in Norway.European archives of paediatric dentistry : official journal of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry · 2022Article
- Changes in oral health indicators due to implementation of the National Health Insurance Services coverage for first molar dental sealant for children and adolescents in South Korea.BMC oral health · 2020Article
- Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice among Private Dental Practitioners toward Preventive Measures of Pediatric Patients in Durg-Bhilai City.International journal of clinical pediatric dentistry · 2020Article
- Fissure sealants or fluoride varnish? Routines and attitudes among dental health personnel in Norway.European archives of paediatric dentistry : official journal of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry · 2019Article
- Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among Dental Practitioners Pertaining to Preventive Measures in Paediatric Patients.Journal of clinical and diagnostic research : JCDR · 2016Article
- Knowledge, value, opinion and practice about usage of pit and fissure sealant among dental professionals in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.Journal of International Society of Preventive & Community Dentistry · 2015Article
- Relationship between Duration of Fluoride Exposure in School-Based Fluoride Mouthrinsing and Effects on Prevention and Control of Dental Caries.ISRN dentistry · 2012Article
- Attitudes, knowledge and utilization of fissure sealants among Greek dentists: a national survey.European archives of paediatric dentistry : official journal of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry · 2010Article
- Ability of optical coherence tomography to detect caries beneath commonly used dental sealants.Lasers in surgery and medicine · 2010Article
- Effect of an Antibacterial Monomer on the Antibacterial Activity of a Pit-and-Fissure Sealant.PloS oneArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPit and fissure sealants (sealants) are widely used as a non-operative preventive method in public dental health in Finland. Most children under 19 years of age attend the community-organized dental health services free of charge. The aims of this study were to find out to what extent sealants were applied, what the attitudes of dental professionals towards sealant application were, and whether any existing sealant policies could be detected among the health centres or among the respondents in general. The study evaluated changes that had taken place in the policies used during a ten year period (1991-2001).
methodsA questionnaire was mailed to each chief dental officer (CDO) of the 265 public dental health centres in Finland, and to a group of general dentists (GDP) applying sealants in these health centres, giving a total of 434 questionnaires with 22 questions. The response rate was 80% (N = 342).
resultsA majority of the respondents reported to application of sealants on a systematic basis for children with increased caries risk. The criteria for applying sealants and the actual strategies seemed to vary locally between the dentists within the health centres and between the health centres nationwide. The majority of respondents believed sealants had short- and long-term effects. The overall use of sealants decreased towards the end of the ten year period. The health centres (N = 28) choosing criteria to seal over detected or suspected enamel caries lesion had a DMFT value of 1.0 (SD +/- 0.49) at age 12 (year 2000) compared to a value of 1.2 (SD +/- 0.47) for those health centres (N = 177) applying sealants by alternative criteria (t-test, p < 0.05).
conclusionThere seems to be a need for defined guidelines for sealant application criteria and policy both locally and nationwide. Occlusal caries management may be improved by shifting the sealant policy from the traditional approach of prevention to interception, i.e. applying the sealants over detected or suspected enamel caries lesions instead of sealing sound teeth.
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Registered trials
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