Efficacy of Various Implant Abutment Screw Access Channel Sealing Materials in Preventing Microleakage: A Systematic Review.

The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the effectiveness of different materials used for sealing dental implant abutment screw access channel (ASAC), in preventing microleakage. As per the searched indexed English literature, this study is the first review of its kind. Indexed English literature published up to February 20, 2021 was systematically searched on relevant electronic databases. The recommendations specified by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) were applied for constructing framework, and reporting the current review. The focused PICO (Participant, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) question was: "Which material (C) is more effective in sealing (I) implant ASAC (P) in terms of causing minimal microbial leakage (O)". Quality of articles was assessed with modified CONSORT scale for in vitro studies. Five in vitro studies were selected for qualitative analysis after final stage screening. Modified CONSORT scale suggested that out of the 5 selected studies, 1 each was of low and high quality, whereas 3 studies were of moderate quality. Included studies had contrasting results related to the efficacy these materials as sealants in ASAC. Sealing capacity against microleakage should be considered as one of the important criteria while selecting the material to fill implant ASAC. Definitive conclusions asserting superiority of a single material over others are difficult to draw, due to nonhomogeneity in study design of the included papers. More studies should be conducted in the near future to investigate the efficacy of various combination of materials in preventing microleakage.