Do Dental Sealants Help Prevent Tooth Decay in Kids and Adults?
The chewing surfaces of the back of our teeth have tiny grooves known as fissures. Tooth decay easily starts in a few cells where food gets stuck and is hard to clean. These grooves are small for the bristles of toothbrushes to get in to clean.
Dental sealants are thin plastic coatings that help cover the chewing surfaces of your back teeth. Fissures dental sealants are a clear or white composite resin similar to a white dental filling. Dental sealants help provide a barrier against bacteria that causes plaque. In addition, sealants are designed to protect cavities and tooth decay.
Causes of Tooth Decay
Everyone has bacteria in their mouths that cause tooth decay. When one eats, the bacteria eat too. These bacteria feed on sugars in your drinks and the food you consume. They produce acid that damages your tooth surface, which is the enamel. After some time, this damage leads to a cavity in your tooth.
Who is a Candidate for Dental Sealants?
Often teenagers and children are the candidates for sealants because of the high chances of developing decay in the grooves and depressions of the molars and premolars. However, adults without fillings or decay in their more or less also benefits from dental sealants.
Normally children should get dental sealants on their permanent premolars and molars as soon as these back teeth come in. By doing this, sealants will help protect the teeth when they are prone to cavities between the ages of 6 and 14.
Then the sealants all sore may be appropriate for baby teeth in cases such as when you are kids baby teeth have deep grooves and depressions. And since baby teeth play an important role in holding the correct spacing of your kid’s permanent teeth, keeping them healthy to avoid losing them too early is essential. Finally, your dentist may recommend a dental sealant if you have tooth decay. The dental sealant will help limit future decay.
Process of Getting Dental Sealants
Applying dental sealants is a simple and painless procedure. It only takes a few minutes for your dentist in Coopersburg Dental to apply the sealant and seal each tooth. The application steps are
- Your dentist cleans their teeth to be sealed
- They dry each tooth and put cotton around the tooth to keep it dry
- Your dentist uses an acid solution on the surfaces of your teeth to roughen them up, helping the dental sealant bond to the teeth
- Your dentist then rinses and dries the teeth
- Dental sealants are then painted on the tip enamel and bond directly to your tooth and harden. The dentist then uses special intense curing lights to help the sealant to harden.
Benefits of Dental Sealants
Dental sealants in Coopersburg, PA, help fill up the small fissures or grooves in the back teeth keeping bacteria and food outs and preventing tooth decay.
Some of the benefits of dental sealants include the following:
They Protect Against Cavities
Sealants protect your teeth from cavities by covering the premolars and molars top with a tooth-colored plastic. The additional layer of protection helps make it difficult for bacteria to stay on the surface of your tooth.
Sealants help Reduce Deep Grooves
Premolars and molars have deeper depressions and grooves on the surfaces, which makes them more challenging to clean.
Toothbrush bristles don’t reach all the depressions and grooves on the chewing surfaces of your back teeth, regardless of how well you brush. The unreachable spots are primed for food particles and the plague to collect. In addition, it’s easier for food debris and bacteria to build up in these deep areas.
Eventually, this deep depressions and grooves lead to a tooth experiencing dental decay and sensitivity. Sealants prevent sensitivity and tooth decay from developing in such vulnerable areas.
They are Long Lasting
Applying dental sealants during childhood protects the teeth throughout the cavity prune yes because they last for many years with proper dental care. Dental sealants last longer if one maintains good oral hygiene and avoids biting on hard objects. During regular dental visits, your dentist checks the dental sealants and might recommend reapplication or repair if necessary.
Dental Sealants are Suitable for all Ages
Dental sealants benefit people of all ages and not children only. Although children are the most common age for these treatments, anyone else shares the same benefits. Permanent teeth of adults also get small groups that need to be covered with sealants to protect the tooth from bacteria.