Cavities seem to be an ever-present danger to our children. They can form from consuming too much sugar and not exercising enough oral hygiene. However, reducing sugar and increasing oral care are not always enough. Fortunately, dental sealants for kids are one of the best ways to prevent cavities from affecting your child.

Dental sealants from your Memorial dentist are a painless application of a compound that protects their teeth from decay.

How Dental Sealants for Kids Help Prevent Cavities

Dental sealants help fill in gaps, pits, fissures, and grooves in teeth, making them smoother.

All of our teeth may get little indentations or grooves at some point, but the molars are the most common.

On the top of the molars, which grind food down to a more manageable size, is a rough surface. This rough surface aids in grinding down the food. Unfortunately, this rough surface means there are a lot of grooves. And these grooves are safe havens for bacteria.

We get rid of bacteria every time we brush our teeth. The better we brush, the more bacteria we can clear away, and the healthier our teeth will be. Bacteria grows more easily in these grooves because our toothbrushes often have a hard time cleaning them effectively.

The purpose of dental sealants for kids is to fill these grooves in and make them smoother, which in turn makes them much easier to clean.

How Do Kids Get Dental Sealants?

Applying dental sealants for kids is very simple and pain free. Your Memorial dentist will apply a layer of a resin like material that fills in the grooves, and when the resin cures, or hardens, it will retain a fair amount of strength.

The dentist will likely want to do all of the molars, but it may not be necessary to do them all at once. The sooner they can be done, the better, however.

Can Adults Get Dental Sealants?

Like children, adults have grooves in their molars as well. And over time, people may cause new grooves to form on their teeth from things like teeth grinding and chewing hard foods.

As such, adults can also get dental sealants from their Memorial dentist. They can fill just about any groove, pit, or fissure, and they make teeth cleaning at home much easier.

Dental sealants for kids and adults only last up to about 5 years at most, but you can be reapply them to help prevent cavities.