Galleria Area Dental Sealants and Fillings

Dental sealants are a preventative measure that can protect teeth from cavities by making the surface of teeth easier to clean with a toothbrush.

Our molars are typically very rough on top, which aids in grinding down food to a more manageable size. This roughness is caused by grooves in the teeth.

Bacteria is able to take shelter in these grooves as they can be difficult to clear out using a regular toothbrush.

But dental sealants applied by a Houston dentist give the bacteria no place to hide.

Dental Sealant Process

Dental sealants are completely pain free in their application, making them especially great for children. Pediatric dentists in Houston often apply a dental sealant to a child’s molars soon after they come in to help prevent cavities.

To apply a sealant, the mouth is kept open and saliva is suctioned out to keep the working area dry.

Using a small applicator, your Houston dentist applies a resin like material to the grooves of the molars. The dentist then moves the resin around to fill in all the grooves with an even coating.

Once the resin hardens, it will make a much smoother surface for the top of the molars. This smooth surface is much easier to clean, helping remove cavity causing bacteria.

Sealing Other Teeth

Dental sealants are not solely relegated to the molars; rather they can be applied to any tooth that has developed grooves.

The molars are sealed most often because they naturally have grooves on them. Other teeth may develop them due to grinding, eating hard foods, or from an accident.

The dental sealant is applied to other teeth just like it would be for molars. The resin is used to fill the grooves and make them flush with the rest of the tooth.

By eliminating these grooves, which could appear on top or on the sides of teeth, bacteria has a harder time collecting and causing damage.

When Dental Sealants are Not Enough

Sometimes, even with dental sealants, cavities will develop. A sealant only helps prevent cavities, but cannot guarantee they won’t form.

The only way to prevent cavities entirely is to keep up with regular oral hygiene at home and seeing a Houston dentist at least twice per year.

If a cavity develops, your Houston dentist will need to determine how bad the decay is in order to provide the best treatment.

An x-ray imaging of your teeth will provide detailed visualizations of how deep the decay goes and how much needs to be cleared out.

Using the x-rays as a guide, your Houston dentist will drill into the tooth at the cavity site to remove all the decayed portions of tooth.

After removing all this material, they will fill the tooth to strengthen it from the inside.

Fillings may be made from silver, gold amalgam, composite resin, porcelain, or glass monomer.

Some materials are cheaper than others, but they may not be as durable or look as good.

For example, resin fillings are the cheapest and cause the least amount of wear on nearby teeth, but they have a very low durability.

Porcelain fillings look like natural teeth but can be rather expensive. They also don’t have the highest durability, but they are significantly better than resin fillings.

Finally, a metal filling like silver or gold is very durable, but some patients don’t like how much they stand out. These are often the best fillings for molars since they are less noticeable.