J. Dent. 1989; 17: l-20 1 Dental materials: 1987 literature review R. van Noort (Editor) School of Clinical Dentistry, University of Sheffield D. Brown United Medical and Dental Schools, Guy’s Hospital, London 8. E. Causton King’s College Dental School, London E. C. Combe University of Manchester Dental School A. M. Fletcher Dental School, University College, London C. H. Lloyd Dental School and Hospital, Dundee J. F. McCabe Dental School, Newcastle upon Tyne M. Sherriff United Medical and Dental Schools, Guy’s Hospital, London R. Strang University of Glasgow Dental School N. E. Waters United Medical and Dental Schools, Guy’s Hospital, London D. C. Watts University of Manchester Dental School D. F. Williams Institute of Medical and Dental Bioengineering, University of Liverpool INTRODUCTION Those of you who are regular readers of the annual review of dental materials, prepared by members of the Dental Materials Panel of the United Kingdom, will note some changes in the review for 1987 compared to previous reviews. The review has been reduced in size so that it can be published as a single article rather than in two parts as has been the practice in the past. The contributors were asked to be as concise and critical as possible of the literature published in the year under review and provide some insight into what, in their opinion, are the most important areas of advancement as reflected in pertinent articles in the refereed journals and also based on their own knowledge and experience. In order to help them in this task any reference to abstracts has been removed from the review because it is felt that those which are worthwhile will eventually be published in refereed journals, at which point their contribution to the advan- cement of knowledge can be assessed more readily. Thus it might be more appropriate to consider this contribution as an overview of the most important aspects of dental materials science represented by articles published in 1987 rather than a comprehensive review of all the published literature. In any case the latter is nowadays 0 1989 Butterworth & Co. Publishers Ltd. 0300-5712/89/010001-20 $3430 more readily achieved using the wide variety of computer- ized search techniques available. You may also note that the individual contributions from the various authors have been identified, providing you with the opportunity to take up any points of disagreement directly with them. Whether or not the objectives have been achieved I will leave for the reader to judge, but I hope that this contribution will provide a useful source of stimulation for those interested in the exciting field of dental materials science. FISSURE SEALANTS R. Strang Several clinical studies on fissure sealants were published in 1987. Simonsen (1987) reported on the retention and effectiveness of a single application of a sealant after 10 years; 56.7 per cent of the permanent first molars still had complete retention compared to 82 per cent at 5 years. Of the teeth originally sealed 21.7 per cent were either restored or carious after 10 years compared to 68.3 per cent in the control group. Hardison et al. (1987) investigated the application of a visible light-cured sealant to the primary molars of 3- and 4-year-old children. They