A 1-year pilot study was conducted to determine the retentive capacities of dental sealants on adult teeth. It proposed to utilize the knowledge and experience gained in sealant application, as a means of attacking the problem of the increase in restored teeth at risk in the aging population. Eighty patients aged 30-50 had Delton tinted sealant applied on one to four contralateral nonhomologous, first or second, acceptable molar pairs. Fifty-five patients completed the evaluation at 1 year, with a 68% retention for 250 teeth: teeth listed as sound, 94.1%; IC and IC-amalgam, 93.7%, and amalgam, 44.9%.