Beating Decay before it Controls You: Houston Dental Sealants

Our back teeth are incredibly important. They are the teeth that grind food down to manageable sizes so it can be easily digested. These teeth withstand huge amounts of pressure when crushing certain foods.

And yet, they can be the most fragile.

How? Decay. Tooth decay can easily strike the rear teeth, known as molars, due to their rough surfaces. The surface of these teeth is covered with divots and grooves to aid in grinding or crushing food material.

But these grooves and divots, while useful, can provide a safe haven for millions of bacteria.

When Home Care is Not Enough

Even if you brush your teeth twice a day, every day, you may not be able to fully clean the grooves of your molars. There are too many of them and they can be so small that toothbrush bristles cannot reach inside to scrape away bacteria.

Mouth rinses may help, but they don’t have the raw scraping power that brushes have. And floss can only tackle the spaces in between teeth.

Because of this, dental sealants may be necessary from your Memorial / Galleria dentist.

Dental Sealants in Houston

Dental sealants prevent decay from occurring by keeping bacteria out of those grooves and pits in your teeth.

How do they accomplish this? By filling them.

Dental sealants are made from a thin plastic like material that fills in the grooves, smoothing out the upper surface of the molars.

They are typically applied in 6 steps:

1.    Clean the tooth

2.    Dry the tooth and border it with cotton

3.    Add a solution to increase adherence

4.    Rinse and dry the tooth again, replace cotton

5.    Apply the sealant

6.    Let the sealant dry

Best Candidates for Sealants

So who should be getting sealants for their teeth? Just about anyone, really!

It is especially important for children to visit the dentist right after their molars come in (the first ones around ages 5 to 7, and the second set between 11 and 14 years old). Visiting a kids dentist in Houston for dental sealants will help protect their teeth for up to a decade afterward.

For teenagers and young adults that are prone to tooth decay, dental sealants could be the answer as well, according to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.

Dental sealants can last for up to 10 years, after which they can be reapplied. The whole process is painless and doesn’t require any anesthetics; however a kid’s dentist could use sedation dentistry if the child is anxious about the procedure.