Do Dental Sealants Work for Kids & Toddlers?
Dental sealants are a variety of protective barriers to restore the chewing surfaces of an existing tooth. Sealants have become a popular solution because they can keep the teeth healthy. If you have kids at home or toddlers, you might want to discuss with the child’s pediatric dentist near you about the benefits sealants can offer your children. Sealants function effectively to prevent decay and damage to the teeth. Dental sealants also help improve oral health.
What Exactly Are Dental Sealants?
The primary advantage of dental sealants for children is the conservation they provide. Dental sealants in Conway, SC, apply sealants to the chewing surfaces of the teeth on the grooves along the molars. Molars are the back teeth with deep grooves, pits, and fissures where food particles and debris remain trapped. Molars are challenging to clean, making them the most susceptible to developing cavities. Dental sealants create a protective barrier over the teeth to limit the trapping of food particles and bacteria getting into the teeth.
How Effective Are Dental Sealants?
An application of dental sealants on your child’s teeth prevents 80 percent of cavities for the first two years and continues the protection against 50 percent of holes for another four years. After that, the application remains on your child’s teeth for approximately nine years.
Research available indicates merely 43 percent of children between six and 11 have dental sealants. In addition, children with dental sealants belong to higher-income families, while children from lower-income households are 20 percent less likely to have dental sealants. Unfortunately, school-age children without sealants are three times more likely to have cavities on their teeth than children with them. This data confirms that dental sealants are indeed effective on children’s teeth.
How Dental Sealants Work?
The working of dental sealants is straightforward. When the pediatric dental office in Conway provides your child dental sealants, they help create a smoother surface over the molars to prevent the entrapment of food particles and bacteria. However, dental sealant application is sensitive to their placements, making it essential to get the application from an experienced pediatric dentist like the professional in Conway.
When the application of dental sealants is perfect, the protective barrier lasts for a lifetime. However, they need monitoring during regular dental appointments and replacements if chipped or broken.
Kids getting dental sealants on their molars benefit the most. This is because the molars erupt at ages 6 and 12. You can consider sealing primary teeth in toddlers so long as the child can tolerate this painless procedure. Children must hold their mouths open without moving for a few minutes during the sealant application procedure. However, treating primary teeth is required for children at higher risk of tooth decay. However, you can inquire with the pediatric dentist seeking advice on whether your toddler’s teeth need sealing.
Who Can Get Dental Sealants?
Dental sealants are effective on any vulnerable teeth surface. However, they are retained effectively in the pits and fissures of the molars. Everyone, regardless of age, can get dental sealants and benefit from them, including adults without restorations in their mouths. Sealants are proven safe and effective, and their benefits outweigh any risks. Dental sealants are safe and effective in preventing cavities on the molars, as they have been for over six decades since their introduction.
Perhaps the only disadvantage and potential problem with sealants remain in their need for reapplication if they fall out, chip, or wear is there likely to. However, if you are diligent with your child’s dental appointments, you can rest assured the pediatric dentist monitors the sealants to provide a solution immediately.
Leaving your children’s teeth unprotected can prove more expensive than getting dental sealants on their teeth. Likewise, restoring teeth with fillings or other treatments as may be required proves more costly than dental sealants costing merely $ 30-$ 60 per tooth with insurance or discount plans reducing the costs further.
If you neglect to get dental sealants for your children from Dr. Shalini Sanku, you expose your child to the problem of dental cavities because they frequently snack on sugary foods and beverages and are negligent with their dental hygiene routine. In addition, your child’s neglect coupled with multiple visits to various dentists for treatments exposes you to considerable expenditure that you wouldn’t want.
If your kids don’t have dental sealants on their molars, please don’t waste time but schedule an appointment with Kids First Dental — Conway to give your kids the protection they need to prevent cavities.