"Prevention
is better than cure," and it has never been truer than in dental health.
Avoiding damage to your teeth through sound oral care beats trying to fix
problems after they arise. Pit and fissure sealants, for example, are one of
several methods for saving teeth from dental caries.
Sealants
are a safe and painless way of protecting teeth from decay. A sealant is a
protective plastic coating, which is applied to the biting surfaces of the back
teeth. The sealant forms a hard shield that keeps food and bacteria from
getting into the tiny grooves in the teeth and causing decay.
Sealants
are only applied to the back teeth - the molars and premolars. These are the
teeth that have ‘pits' (small hollows) and ‘fissures' (grooves) on their biting
surfaces. Some teeth naturally have deep grooves which will need to be sealed;
others have shallow ones which will not need sealing.
Even
though pits and fissures do occur naturally, they can deepen over time, leading
to dental caries, so a child whose teeth show signs of pits and fissures may be
a prime candidate for dental sealants. In both cases, these areas can easily
fill with bacteria, which may be difficult to remove with regular tooth brushing,
as the bristles on toothbrush are often not able to get to the deepest part of
these grooves.
As this
bacteria grows, it interacts with the sugar in the food, turning them into
acids that can eat away at tooth enamel. If this process causes enough decay,
it eventually spreads to the inner pulp of the tooth. This can result in
extremely painful condition, which require root canal treatment and sometimes
tooth extraction in bad situation.
Pit and
fissure sealants are designed specifically for three preventive purposes
♦ Sealants occupy the pits and fissures of teeth
with a resin material
♦ As the
pits and fissures are filled up, bacteria are not able to go deep into grooves,
and this causes less bacteria to be present on the tooth; teeth with fissure
sealants are 22 times less likely to develop decay than those that have not
been filled
♦ Sealants
render the pits and fissures easier to clean during brushing and chewing, as
food particles do not get trapped as easily when you have deep fissures
Procedure
for pit and fissure sealants
The
process is usually quick and straightforward, taking only a few minutes for
each tooth. No drilling or anesthesia is required. The tooth is thoroughly
cleaned, prepared with a special solution, and dried. The sealant is applied
similar to the application of nail polish and is cured or set with ultraviolet
composite curing light. Your child’s bite will be verified and the sealant may
be polished for comfort. It is totally pain free, and the teeth do not feel any
different afterwards.
It is
recommended that children get their pit and fissures sealed after their first
permanent teeth erupt. This is usually between 6 and 7 years of age. The rest
of the teeth which usually erupt between 11 to 14 years of age are sealed as
and when they erupt.
Sealants
reduce the risk of decay when they are applied in conjunction with effective
brushing and regular dental visits. Sealants do not prevent decay on the sides
of teeth or between teeth.
