Dental Sealants and Effective Way of Preventing Cavities in Children

Dental Sealants and Effective Way of Preventing Cavities in Children

May 01, 2021

The significance of dental sealants is to protect children’s teeth and avert cavities. Dental sealants have been around for over four decades, and the benefits of sealants have been mentioned even by the CDC in a recent report.

Dental sealants are universally used as safeguarding materials against cavities. Unfortunately, they are also the most inadvertently misused product in current circumstances. Parents taking their children to the dental office near Smithtown for dental sealant application usually have a couple of questions in their mind. The first is, are dental sealants safe? And the second is how long do dental sealants last?

Parents of young children must understand that dental sealants’ safety is undisputed because they cause no harm to children’s mouths despite concerns of synthetic estrogens like bisphenol A being propagated. Dental sealants are tolerated well by children and others because the BPA levels in dental sealants haven’t provided sufficient evidence they are harmful after applying sealants on the child’s teeth.

What Are Dental Sealants?

Dental sealants are a preventive measure minimally invasive to promote early intervention to avoid carious lesions forming in the premolars and molars‘ pits and fissures. The pits and fissures are on the teeth’ biting surfaces the most susceptible to harbor plaque and bacteria. Dental sealants seal the pits and fissures to prevent bacterial plaque from accumulating. Some reasons children must have dental sealants as a preventive measure include a history of dental caries, deep craters, fissures in their molars, poor dental hygiene, and defective enamel.

Children with shallow pits and fissures maintaining appropriate oral hygiene with restored teeth or high risk of dental caries are not suitable for dental sealant application. Similar is the case for people seeking dental sealants for adults, especially if they already have restorations on their teeth.

What Is the Reason for Dental Sealant Failure?

The efficacy of the placement is most critical for the reasoning of dental implant failures. Eighty percent of young children have tooth decay on permanent teeth in the pit and fissure areas, and dental sealants have proven themselves an effective prevention tool.

Unfortunately, the success of dental sealant application doesn’t always proceed unhindered. Children are the most familiar receivers of dental sealants. The Smithtown dentist near me needs a clean and dry environment when working with the sealants to adhere to and function efficiently. Keeping children fixed in a position with their mouth entirely dry and saliva-free is a challenge dentists must overcome. Pits and fissure sealants can only prevent dental caries if they can remain on the tooth surface.

The use of etching solutions before the application of dental sealants increases retention. Unfortunately, improper application by inexperienced dentists is the leading cause of dental sealant failure because of salivary contamination. Parents asking how long dental sealants last must consider the factors mentioned in this blog before taking their child to any dentist in their locality other than the dental office near Smithtown where an experienced professional accomplishes the procedure.

Dental sealants remain on the teeth for up to a decade with proper dental hygiene and frequent visits to the dentist for exams and cleanings when the professional checks for chipping and breaking of the sealants providing a reapplication is required.

What Are the Benefits of Dental Sealants?

Research available proves dental sealants prevent 80 percent of cavities for the first couple of years after application. The protection continues against 50 percent of holes until four years, and the sealants remain in a child’s mouth for approximately nine years.

43 percent of 6 to 11-year-old children having dental health are 66 percent less likely to develop cavities than children without sealants. Dental sealant application is one of the most conservative and cost-effective treatments while also being non-invasive.

Dental sealants need monitoring and maintenance during regular dental care visits to ensure they don’t wear off. Besides the above dental sealants are an effective solution for preventing cavities in children and adults who have unrestored teeth and practice excellent dental hygiene. At $ 30-$ 60 per tooth and covered by dental insurance, dental sealant application is also an affordable method of preventing children from developing unwanted dental issues needing expensive treatments from dentist 11787. When an experienced dentist accomplishes dental sealant application, they can last for a lifetime, although they need replacements. Therefore parents must consider having their children undergo the dental sealant application procedure soon as they develop their premolars or molars.

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