You can go for the application of dental sealants on the
teeth of your child if you are quite concerned about their ability to fight
tooth decay. now, you may think that brushing and flossing are good enough to
remove food debris and plaque from the teeth but there are such pits and
grooves in the teeth where you cannot make the toothbrush’s bristles to go
into. With the help of dental sealants, you actually seal the passage of food
debris and plaque to the pits and grooves in the chewing surface of the molars.
Having that said, dental sealant is basically a plastic
material which is applied onto the chewing surface of the back teeth which
include molars and premolars. This plastic material settles into the grooves
and depressions in the teeth’s chewing surface in order to protect tooth enamel
from plaque and bacteria.
In a recent study published in the journal of American
Dental Association, school-based programs for applying sealants on the
children’s teeth are highly appreciated due to the effectiveness of these
programs. These applications have been pretty helpful in prevention of gum
diseases.
Now, if your child has not got the sealant through these
school based programs, you can take your child to the dentist to get his/her
teeth protected with the sealants. It is quite an easy procedure, and it takes
just a few minutes for the dentist to apply these sealants on the teeth of your
kid.
Prior to application of the sealant, the surface of the
teeth is cleaned well. Then an acid solution is applied in order to roughen up
the area. This roughening helps in proper adhering of the sealant material with
the teeth’s surface. Then this sealant is painted into the tooth enamel. After
this application, the sealant hardens almost quickly.
The benefit of sealant is that it doesn’t let the decay to
happen on the chewing surface, especially in the pits and fissures which are
covered with it. These sealants normally do not wear out with the normal
chewing and they can last for several years. However, it is also not uncommon
for the sealants to wear off from the chewing surface. In this scenario, you
can take your child to dental visit to get the sealant reapplied.
