Is It Necessary to Use Dental Sealants in Adults and Children?

What are fissures?

Fissures are pits found on all teeth except cutting teeth and pointed teeth. The depth of the fissures ranges from 0.25 to 3 mm. There are 4 types of fissure structures:

• funnel;
• cone-shaped;
• drop-shaped;
• polypoid.

Why use dental sealants?

The sealant used in this procedure includes anticaries agents – fluorine and calcium. These components contribute to the teeth nutrition, at times reducing the risk of tooth decay. Therefore, parents need to understand that tooth sealant is a very useful and necessary dental procedure. Ohio dentists recommend using sealants as fast as possible to protect your tooth.

When should fissures be sealed?

Sealants should be used immediately when you find that a chewing tooth has completely cut. Usually, the molar cuts as the first of the permanent teeth in the child. Most often, this happens in 6-7 years old. From this age, it is already possible to carry out the prevention of caries – dental sealants.

How often should this procedure be held?

The answer to this question is purely individual for each child. It all depends on how quickly the sealants on the child’s teeth will wear off. You can make a seal and forget about it for 5–8 years. It happens that after 3 years, it may be necessary to reseal the fissures.

Is it possible to do fissure sealants for adults?

Fissure sealing can be performed in adults. But the procedure is carried out only on intact, that is, on healthy teeth. Contraindications to fissure sealing in adults are open (V-shaped, wide) fissure and carious process on the contact surface of the tooth.

In childhood, immediately after the tooth cur, it is easy to define whether there are carious lesions in the fissure area. In adulthood, it is almost impossible to diagnose fissure caries in a deep, closed or pigmented fissure. Therefore, an invasive sealing method is used for adults. Before “sealing” the fissures, firstly it should be diagnosed whether there is a carious cavity on the surface or not. Then, a dentist begins to seal the teeth.

Should the sealant be replaced with filling material?

A sealant is a type of filling material. The difference between the sealant and other filling materials is that it contains useful trace elements that will subsequently saturate the tooth so that a carious process does not occur.

Why do not seal the fissures of milk teeth?

Milk teeth, as a rule, simply do not have time to cover it with the drug, since the process of caries in babies occurs much faster than in adults. Therefore, so that, the child does not have problems with permanent teeth in the future, you can also cover milk teeth with a sealant immediately after cutting. Every parent should keep in mind that after the first teeth cut in a child, he/she should visit the dentist for a checkup every 3 months.

It is also necessary to carry out preventive measures at home:

• get toothpaste with calcium and fluoride content. Parents can brush their children’s teeth with toothpaste starting from 2 years old, and before that, they should simply clean their teeth with fingertips.
• starting from 3 years old, you can already use children’s electric toothbrushes.
• you need to brush your teeth 2 times a day: in the morning after eating and in the evening before going to bed.
• when using a manual toothbrush, you need to brush your teeth correctly: movements should only be “sweeping” – from the gum to the tooth, the toothbrush is at an angle of 45 degrees.