What Are Dental Sealants?

Burt child’s smile is made up of many precious teeth. These teeth are covered in very small grooves called pits and fissures. If your child’s teeth are not properly cleaned, as can be very difficult for children to do correctly, it is very easy for cavities to form. Lingering bacteria can quickly colonize the grooves of a child’s teeth. Since children do not properly clean their teeth as well as they should, sometimes extra measures are necessary.

Dental sealants are just the thing to protect your child’s smile from being ruined by decay and cavities. This dental procedure involves covering the teeth with a protective seal to prevent cavities from forming in a susceptible child’s mouth.

How Dental Sealants Work

By preventing bacteria from accessing the surface of a tooth, you are essentially depriving the bacteria of nutrients necessary for its growth. The bacteria cannot stick to the dental sealant as it can to your children’s teeth. It essentially provides a protective shield against bacteria.

How Dental Sealants Are Applied

During your dental visit for sealants, your child’s dentist will first thoroughly clean the surface of the teeth. This ensures that no bacteria is trapped beneath the dental sealants. However, even if any bacteria were left behind underneath the sealants, they would not pose a threat to your child’s teeth.

Once the teeth are fully clean, a mild acid solution is applied to the teeth to roughen up the surface of the teeth to make it easier for the sealant to stick to them.

The next step is the application of dental sealants. Essentially, your child’s dentist will paint a thin plastic layer onto the surface of the teeth, covering them.

The entire process for this procedure is very simple and quick. Your child can acquire dental sealants in just one visit. If you have any other questions regarding dental sealants, please call us today or stop by our office.