d e n t a l m a t e r i a l s 2 8 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 298–303 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com jo ur n al homep age : w ww.intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/dema Longevity of materials for pit and fissure sealing—Results from a meta-analysis Jan Kühnisch a,∗ , Ulrich Mansmann b , Roswitha Heinrich-Weltzien c , Reinhard Hickel a,∗ a Department of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, School of Dentistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany b Institute of Medical Data Management, Biometrics, and Epidemiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany c Department of Preventive and Pediatric Dentistry, University Hospital, Jena, Germany a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 7 February 2011 Received in revised form 21 October 2011 Accepted 1 November 2011 Keywords: Meta-analysis Systematic review Pit and fissure sealants Clinical studies Caries prevention a b s t r a c t Objective. This meta-analysis investigates the clinical retention of pit and fissure sealants in relation to observation time and material type. Data, sources and study selection. A search in the MEDLINE, EMBASE and CENTRAL databases identified 2944 abstracts (published prior to 9/30/2011), of which 485 clinical publications were analyzed in detail. A total of 146 articles included information about sealant retention, with a minimum observation time of 2 years. These publications were analyzed to determine the retention rates of the various materials studied (UV-light-, light- and auto-polymerizing resin-based sealants, fluoride-releasing materials, compomers, flowable composites and glass-ionomer-cement-based sealants). The meta-analysis used random effects models for longitudinal logistic regression and Bayesian statistics. Results. As part of the systematic review, 98 clinical reports and 12 field trial reports were identified. Auto-polymerizing sealants had the longest observation time (up to 20 years) and were found to have a 5-year retention rate of 64.7% (95%CI = 57.1–73.1%), which was estimated from the meta-analysis model. Resin-based light-polymerizing sealants and fluoride-releasing products showed similar 5-year retention rates (83.8%, 95%CI = 54.9–94.7% and 69.9%, 95%CI = 51.5–86.5%, respectively) for completely retained sealants. In contrast to these high retention rates, poor retention rates were documented for UV-light-polymerizing materials, compomers and glass-ionomer-cement-based sealants (5-year retention rates were <19.3%). Retention rates for UV-light-polymerizing materials, compomers and glass- ionomer-cement-based sealants were classified as inferior. Conclusions versus Significance. The results of this meta-analysis suggested that resin-based sealants can be recommended for clinical use. The faster and less error-prone clinical appli- cation of light-polymerizing materials, however, makes them the preferred choice for daily dental practice. © 2011 Academy of Dental Materials. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ∗ Corresponding author at: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Poliklinik für Zahnerhaltung und Parodontologie, Goethestraße 70, 80336 München, Germany. Tel.: +49 89 5160 9343/9341; fax: +49 89 5160 9349/9349. E-mail address: jkuehn@dent.med.uni-muenchen.de (J. Kühnisch). 0109-5641/$ – see front matter © 2011 Academy of Dental Materials. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.dental.2011.11.002