It’s crucial to frequently brush your teeth with fluoride toothpaste and floss between your teeth to help prevent cavities. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to clean your mouth thoroughly. Your teeth have grooves that a toothbrush’s bristles can’t always correctly clean, especially those molars that help you in chewing food while you eat. As a result, food particles and cavity-causing bacteria remain concealed in your teeth’s tiny fissures, creating the perfect conditions for dental decay. Dental sealants, fortunately, are a fantastic solution to this problem.
What Are Dental Sealants?
An extremely thin, protective layer called a dental sealant is applied to the chewing surfaces of your molars or back teeth. It seals the fissures and pits to prevent cavities. For avoiding cavities, sealants are much more effective.
How Do Sealants Work?
The germs that cause cavities fill the crevices and grooves in your teeth where food and sugar have been lodged. This leads to the formation of cavities. To prevent cavities from forming, sealants act as a thin plastic barrier that keeps food particles and germs out of the gaps in the teeth. They can be utilized as an alternative to fillings to prevent further dental decay.
How Long Do Sealants Last?
It makes sense to wonder whether something as seemingly harmless as a plastic cover will last, yet dental sealants are made to be resilient. With the proper maintenance, they can typically last for ten years or longer! Sealants don’t require removal like other dental procedures like braces do. Instead, they will gradually disappear until they are gone altogether. New sealants can be placed in their place as the old ones degrade. Sealants are strong and resilient and should survive for many years as long as the teeth are not too strained. Natural enamel and dental sealants can deteriorate due to chewing on ice and popcorn kernels that are hard to break apart or using your teeth to open difficult packaging. Every time you visit the dentist for a checkup after having sealants placed, your dentist will evaluate how well they are holding up. The dentist will modify them as necessary if they observe that they have worn.
What Are The Benefits Of Sealants?
The application of a sealant has several advantages. Sealants are most frequently applied to children, although they can also help adults with decay. Children’s permanent molars should often receive sealants as soon as they erupt.
- Sealants protect the grooves in the teeth.
- Dental sealants are simple to apply, and they dry quickly.
- The teeth are quickly protected following application.
- Sealants can persist for several years before they need to be reapplied since they are resilient to the power of typical chewing.
- Sealants are more reasonably priced and a proactive technique to help in cavity prevention.
- Since sealants are either white or clear, they are essentially undetectable whether speaking, grinning, or eating.
- Sealants are beneficial in the fight against tooth decay for both children and adults.
Sealants are a great technique to help stop decay and cavities, but regular dental hygiene is still necessary. Any youngster who receives sealants should be informed that maintaining good dental health requires a consistent regimen of twice-daily brushing and frequent flossing. Increased fluoride consumption can help strengthen enamel and ward against bothersome dental caries in children whose permanent teeth have come in and are particularly prone to cavities.
Don’t be afraid to contact your dentist if you think dental sealants are a good option for your child or if it’s time to get them!
