The need for and prevalence of dental sealants in active duty U.S. military personnel.

This paper explores the need for and the prevalence of dental sealants in active duty U.S. military personnel. The data come from the 1994 Tri-Service Comprehensive Oral health Survey. Data were collected on 13,050 Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy active duty personnel at 26 sites. Women and minorities were oversampled. Both bivariate and logistic regression analyses were done on the need for at least one dental sealant and the prevalence of at least one dental sealant in service members. Weighted data (1,669,662) were used for the bivariate analyses; unweighted data were used for the regressions. Results show that 3.6% of service members need dental sealants and that 6.8% have dental sealants. The need for dental sealants varies across age, rank, and branch of service. The prevalence of dental sealants varies across age, race, rank, and branch of service. The cost-effectiveness of dental sealants in this population should be established.