The caries experience among children in various parts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have been reported to be high [25-27]. However, the adoption of pit and fissure sealants for preventive purposes by the dentists' in the Kingdom has not been evaluated. The author examined 2450 school children of grade 1-9 and found less than 5 percent of them had sealants (personal data). The present study aimed to provide information about sea- lants to the dentists working in private dental practices in the City of Jeddah and to determine whether dentists' knowledge, attitude and use of sealants could be modified by education. M ATERI ALS AN D M ETH O D S Subjects A list of names, addresses of the private dental clinics in the city of Jeddah was obtained from the Ministry of Health. The clinics were contacted by phone to obtain information regarding the numbers of dental profes- sionals in each clinic. All dentists (312) in the private practice constituted the initial sample. This sample was surveyed to determine level of knowledge, attitude toward sealants and use of sealants. The respondents were randomly allocated to two equal groups, one group was offered education materials and the other served as a control group. After 12 months, a post-intervention survey was conducted to identify difference in know- ledge, attitude and sealant use between the two groups. Q uestionnaire The survey questionnaire was developed, reviewed and pilot-tested among 15 dentists, who were not included in the main study. Based on the results of the pilot test the questionnaire was modified. A 19-item questionnaire was developed for the study using knowledge, attitude and sealant use questions from other investigations. [17, 22, 27, 28] The pre-intervention questionnaire consisted of six questions to assess dentists' perception of the value of sealants, the practicality of their application, their cost TH E EFFECT O F ED U CATI O N U PO N D EN TI STS' KN O W LED GE AN D ATTI TU D E TO WARD FI SSU RE SEALAN TS N AJAT M .A. FARSI* Correspondence : Dr. Najat Farsi Department of Preventive Dental Sciences King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Dentistry P.0. Box 1540, Jeddah, 21441, K.S.A. INTRODUCTION Epidemiological data show that the prevalence of dental caries in most developed countries has declined in recent decades [1-3], and it has been suggested that the use of fluoride in various forms has been largely res- ponsible for this decline. Unfortunately, preventing tooth decay on the occlusal surfaces of teeth remains a problem for the practising dentist because fluoride is less effective on these surfaces. Fissure sealants are highly effective in preventing caries in pit and fissures [4-8] and the management of incipient carious lesions [9]. However, in spite of the scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness, their use by dentist has been limited [10]. In the United States, it was reported that only 10% of school children in Tennessee had sealant on their teeth [11], while in North Carolina only 12% had sealant [12]. CHESTNUTT et al. [13] in 1994 reported that only 10.2% of the Scotch school children had sealants which is even higher than the level of sealants reported in year 1996 in other parts of the United Kingdom [14]. Even a more recent study, which showed an increased use of sealant, put the figure at between 30-50% in the United Kingdom [15]. There are many reasons for the sparse use of sealants in caries prevention. Lack of knowledge about sealants has frequently been cited as a possible determent to its adoption [16-18]. Lack of public knowledge and believe about the efficacy of dental sealants also influence parental acceptance of sealants for their children [19]. Continuing education has been proposed as a method of increasing sealant utilisation among practising dentists [20-24]. Results of these studies suggest that continuing education may have positive effects upon knowledge, opinions and behaviours but without a well-designed res earch using adequate control group, the extent of these effects remain speculative.