Flexural Strength, Elastic Modulus and Remineralizing Abilities of Bioactive Resin-Based Dental Sealants
Maria Salem Ibrahim, Mana’a Saleh AlAbbas, Khalid U. Alsomaly, Abdullah A. AlMansour, Alhareth Abdulaziz Aljouie, Majed M. Alzahrani, Ahmed A. Asseri, Jehan AlHumaid
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess the remineralizing abilities and compare the flexural strength and elastic modulus of different bioactive pit and fissure sealants. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Human enamel samples were randomly and blindly sealed with one of the following bioactive materials: BioCoat (Bc), ACTIVA KIDS (Av) and BeautiSealant (Bu). Seal-it (Si) was used as a non-bioactive sealant beside a control blank (B) group with no sealant. The sealed samples were subjected to a pH-cycling model (7 days of demineralization-remineralization cycles). The enamel surface hardness change (SHC), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) and polarized light microscopy were used to assess the remineralizing abilities of the studied sealants. Flexural strength and elastic modulus were also assessed following the ISO 4049 protocols. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the results. RESULTS: < 0.05) in comparison to the other. These findings were supported by the results of SEM-EDX and polarized imaging by showing higher percentages of calcium and phosphate ions with the former sealants and thinner demineralized enamel bands. CONCLUSION: In this study, Bc showed the highest flexural strength. Bc and Bu sealants outperformed the other studied sealants in terms of their remineralization abilities.