How do Dental Sealants Protect My Teeth?

Dental sealants are slimy coatings of a protective material shielding the chewing surfaces of your molars from harmful bacteria-causing cavities. Dentists suggest placing dental sealants as part of a preventive measure for your teeth.

What Are Dental Sealants?

Thin liquid coatings painted on the chewing surfaces of your back teeth, the molars and premolars, are called dental sealants. After placement, the dentist hardens and cures the sealing material to shield and protect teeth from detrimental cavity-causing bacteria.

What Helps Make Dental Sealants?

Manufacturers of sealants use different materials to make them, including medical grade plant or synthetic resin and glass powder with water-soluble acids glass ionomer.

What Purpose Do Dental Sealants Serve?

The Dentist in Youngtown, AZ, places dental sealants on your teeth as a preventive measure to protect them from infection-causing bacteria. Your molars have deep grooves that help grind food when chewing. Food and bacteria can remain trapped in the grooves resulting in tooth decay. Sealants seal these teeth to prevent bacteria from reaching them.

Who Needs This Protective Measure?

Children and teenagers are typical recipients of dental sealants. However, this treatment can also benefit adults without tooth decay or dental fillings in the back teeth. Generally, everyone vulnerable to tooth decay on their molars should consider dental sealants.

Children typically get dental sealants on their permanent molars when they emerge between six and 14 to protect their teeth in the cavity-prone ages. Occasionally dental sealants are also appropriate for baby teeth. It is particularly the case if your child has teeth with deep depressions and grooves because bonds can help protect them from conditions like baby bottle tooth decay. Baby teeth are essential to hold space for permanent teeth, keeping them healthy and preventing premature tooth loss.

Are Sealants Common?

In preventive dentistry treatments, dental sealants are the most common. In America, approximately 42 percent of children between six and 11 and adolescents between 12 and 19 have dental sealants on their permanent teeth to prevent tooth decay.

Preparing for Dental Sealants

Preparation is unnecessary before receiving dental sealants. The dentist near you can place them during your routine dental visit.

Before applying sealants to your teeth, the hygienist will thoroughly clean your teeth to eliminate plaque to prevent bacteria from remaining trapped beneath the sealing material and your tooth surfaces.

Application of Dental Sealants

Dental sealant application is straightforward and painless. The dentist places dental sealants near you in a few minutes. The application process proceeds as follows:

• A thorough cleaning of your teeth.
• Drying your teeth and placing absorbent material in the area to keep the chewing surfaces dry.
• Painting some etching solution on the tooth’s chewing surfaces of them.
• Rinsing and drying your teeth.
• Painting the sealant on the enamel for bonding directly to the tooth surface.
• Shining an ultraviolet light for hardening the sealing material.

Benefits of Dental Sealants

Excellent dental hygiene undoubtedly helps remove food particles, debris, and dental plaque from the smooth surfaces of the teeth. Unfortunately, brushing and flossing cannot reach the nooks and crannies of all teeth, making it essential to have an additional barrier of protection over your molars that are most challenging to clean.

Dental sealants benefit you by preventing 80 percent of cavities during the initial two years after the application. The protection remains ongoing against 50 percent of holes for the other four, and the sealing material stays on your teeth for nine years. However, they need monitoring during routine appointments with the local dentist because sealants are vulnerable to chipping and cracking and will need reapplication if damaged.

Recovery Time after Dental Sealant Application

After dental sealant placement, there is no recovery time. You can return to work or school soon after getting the protective measure on your molars.

The application of dental sealants by the dental offices nearby will allow you to eat or drink immediately after your appointment. However, you must refrain from having sticky, complex, and chewy foods because they can chip and damage the new sealants. You must ensure you have such foods in moderation for optimal results.

Dental sealants protect your back teeth by sealing the rough surfaces by preventing the entrapment of food particles and plaque that cause cavities. If you are vulnerable to tooth decay, you can receive dental sealants from Agua Fria Dental to protect your teeth. Sealants help prevent unnecessary expenditure on dental restorations by keeping you free from infections.