Benefits of Pit and Fissure Sealants

Good dental health is every parent’s concern. Dental cavities in a young child or adolescent’s mouth are stressful for both parent and child, often leading to painful sleepless nights and needing multiple visits to your family dentist in Frisco, besides creating problems like early loss of first molars which can lead to orthodontic problems in the permanent teeth. Prevention is definitely better than cure in this regard! While good brushing habits are the basis of dental care in order to prevent cavities, often it is not enough alone.

For one, young children lack dexterity and their brushing may not be as effective in removal of caries, causing dental plaque from the surfaces of teeth. Another issue is that newly erupted back teeth (molars and premolars) have narrow and deep grooves and pits on their chewing surface. These grooves are the most common areas where cavities can start and go undetected. These fissures are an ideal breeding ground for plaque microorganisms, being hard to reach and clean, and the acids produced by plaque microbes housed in the narrow grooves are responsible for cavities.

Pit and fissure sealants are made of special dental composite restorative material, which can easily flow within dental fissures and completely occlude them. They are usually recommended for children and younger adults whose teeth are not yet worn down and who have deep fissures on the posterior teeth. Your family dentist in Frisco will evaluate an adult or child patient’s mouth to determine the shape of teeth, depth of the pit’s fissures and cavity risk. Based on these, pit and fissure sealants may be of great benefit. Children usually should receive sealants on their permanent molars soon after they erupt; about at the ages of six for the first molar and twelve for the second molar.

Getting pit and fissure sealants is similar to getting a composite filling, except that no tooth structure is removed. Your dentist will clean the tooth, etch the enamel with a gel and paint the sealant on to the fissure, which is then light cured. The entire process is quick, painless, simple, and relatively inexpensive. You may choose between either a clear, tooth-colored or a ‘tinted’ sealant. The tint makes it evident when the sealant has worn off and needs replacement, a property that works well in a child’s mouth.

While a sealant can last up to five to ten years, it needs to be checked regularly and replaced when worn off. Pit and fissure sealants are a simple measure that your family dentist can include in a preventive regime to help grow healthy sound teeth, saving the time and expense more extensive dental treatment incurs.