Can Dental Sealants Heal and Restore Your Molars?
Dental sealants are thin and durable plastic coatings applied to the chewing surfaces of the molars. Dental sealants are helpful to prevent tooth decay after an application by instantly bonding in the grooves of the molars forming a protective barrier over their enamel.
Dental sealants are generally painted on the surfaces of the molars as a preventive measure against tooth decay. The sealants penetrate the pits and fissures of the molars during the application by a dentist, and ultraviolet light helps harden it, resulting in a protective barrier over your tooth enamel.
Can Sealants Heal and Restore Your Molars?
Dental sealants are an excellent remedy for preventing tooth decay and cavities in children, teenagers, and adults. Adults with unrestored teeth or deterioration in their molars can seek dental sealants near me from a dentist providing the treatment to take advantage of the beneficial properties of dental sealants.
Children and teenagers are forever prone to tooth decay and need frequent visits to dentists for restorations. Children benefit immensely from dental sealants on their molars when they emerge at ages 6, 12, and 18. However, it helps to understand dental sealants cannot heal and restore affected molars and are merely a preventive barrier against tooth decay from developing.
Children or adults with affected molars can receive restorations from the dentist in Seattle, providing dental fillings and other restorative materials like dental crowns, inlays, Onlays, et cetera. However, when bacteria in the mouth penetrate the tooth enamel to create cavities, the damage will not heal itself, needing external measures. It is why dental sealants are used as a preventive barrier to prevent bacteria from feasting on the food particles trapped in the molars to deposit toxins to erode tooth enamel. Therefore sealants cannot heal and restore molars but can undoubtedly protect them from any damages after an application.
Is The Dental Sealant Application Worth the Expense?
If you want to understand whether the dental sealant application is worth the time and money, why don’t you consider how much it would cost to visit dentists with your kids at odd hours of the day to receive restorative treatments like fillings merely because you overlooked getting sealants for teeth for your kids? A trip to the pediatric dentist will undoubtedly cost you hundreds if not more besides restorations your child receives.
Wouldn’t you have saved considerably if you had invested in dental sealants to prevent your kids from developing cavities? We are confident you will accept our view that it would have been better for you to spend $ 30-$ 60 per molar of your child to get dental sealants instead of spending hundreds or more on a single cavity.
Dental sealants are undoubtedly worth the expense because they protect your child’s molars against 80 percent of cavities for the first two years after the application and continue protecting them against 50 percent of holes for another four. The sealants remain on your child’s molars for nearly a decade, although they need touching up because they are prone to chipping and cracking.
The Dental Sealant Procedure
Dental visits are disliked by everyone, including children, because the dentist probes into their mouths with instruments, making them uncomfortable about dental visits. However, the dental sealant procedure isn’t likely to cause discomfort or anxiety in your child because the sealant application procedure is straightforward and completed within a few minutes.
Your child might complain about jaw pain after getting dental sealants over their molars by sitting in the dentist’s chair with their mouths open. However, the children won’t complain about the procedure because the dentist merely cleans the targeted molars and dries them before applying an etching solution over the teeth to ensure the dental sealant adheres to the tooth. The tooth receiving the etching solution is cleaned and dried to use the bonding agent finally and harden the sealant with ultraviolet light.
Your child is free to continue eating and drinking soon after the application, and no restrictions are imposed on them after the procedure.
What Happens After Getting Dental Sealants?
You must remember getting your kids dental sealants in no way permits them to neglect regular dental hygiene routines to allow plaque buildup to develop over the teeth. Children must receive encouragement to brush and floss their teeth as recommended by the Seattle dentist and get six-monthly exams and cleanings to ensure their mouths are free from infections and the sealants are protecting the molars as they should.
If you need a protective barrier on your child’s teeth to prevent the development of cavities, why not contact 3rd & Columbia dental to understand how dental sealants protect teeth from needing healing and restorative treatments by preventing cavities from developing.