Best Practices for Dental Sealants in Community Service-Learning

Community service-learning (CSL) in predoctoral dental education might be an effective tool for increasing sealant use by dentists-thus benefitting underserved children while facilitating students' learning of a clinical procedure in a real-life setting. This study reviewed the scientific literature on this topic in order to 1) evaluate the reasons for low sealant use among dentists, 2) consider important aspects of sealant use in community settings, and 3) identify best practices to use as guidelines for CSL regarding sealant use. As background, the MEDLINE database was searched with the key words "dental sealants" for human and laboratory studies in the English language. A total of 205 relevant articles were identified and overviewed. We found that the low use of sealants relate to dentists' orientation toward restorations rather than prevention, distrust in sealant treatment, lack of confidence in caries risk assessment, and concern about sealing over caries. The aspects to consider in the CSL projects are acquisition of knowledge and necessary skills of operators, cost-benefit approach to sealant placement, and meticulous sealant placement procedures, including the necessity for a short-term recall.