What Are the Benefits of Dental Sealants for Children?

Brushing teeth twice daily, limiting consumption of sweets, daily flossing, and regular dental check-ups are ideal for your child as they help to fight against cavities. In addition, using dental sealants for your child can be an added benefit as they add a lasting protective coat on your child’s tooth to keep the cavities away.

This article will focus on dental sealants and how they benefit your child. Also, you get to know the application process of such sealants.

A dental sealant is a protective, thin coat placed on your child's premolars and molars to seal out bacteria and food particles that cause cavities. According to a report, placing sealants on children has reduced cavities by 86%. Besides using a sealant, your child must follow a comprehensive dental care routine that includes regular brushing, flossing, and maintaining a healthy diet. This helps maintain proper dental health.

While dental care is necessary to keep your teeth clean, a sealant for teeth offers additional protection to the grooved surfaces around the teeth. In addition, the sealant eliminates pit and fissure decay around these areas of your child's tooth. Therefore, dentists recommend that children between 6 to 14 years of age opt for such sealants.

The procedure of applying a sealant to your tooth is effortless. Here are the steps your dentist follows:

Step 1: Your dentist prepares your child’s teeth by applying a solution to them.

Step 2: This solution roughens the surface layer of each tooth, allowing the sealant to bond with the enamel completely.

Step 3: After preparing the teeth, your dentist will apply an acrylic sealant to every tooth.

Step 4: Wait until the sealant flows through the grooves and fills each tooth properly.

Step 5: Allow it to harden for a few minutes.

Your child’s tooth is now protected from bacterial growth that gathers inside its pit.

The benefits of dental sealants are:

• Protection Against Cavities: Since sealants cover the top surface of your tooth with a coloured material matching the hue of your tooth, they protect your child’s teeth against cavities. Therefore, bacteria cannot remain on the tooth surface and attack the enamel of your child’s tooth.
• Promotes Healthy Smile: While brushing, a toothbrush can always not reach the deeper grooves of your child's enamel. This, therefore, leaves behind bacteria that cause cavities. A dental sealant is effective as it provides an additional coat to each tooth of your child, promoting a wonderful smile.
• Painless Process: The procedure of applying a dental sealant is effortless and absolutely painless. Your dentist uses solutions and tools to spread the sealant properly to reach your teeth' grooves.
• Long-lasting Procedure: Dental sealants last several years if your kid takes proper care of them. To maintain that, ask your kid to avoid biting hard objects. However, your dentist will thoroughly check the sealant and might advise a re-application of the same depending upon the necessity.
• Affordable Dental Procedure: Apart from being a painless procedure, a dental sealant is absolutely more cost-effective than any other dental restoration process. Additionally, most dental insurances cover sealant procedures. Therefore, it makes the whole process affordable.
• Early Application of Sealants: Your doctor will advise you to undergo a dental sealant process for your child as soon as their first permanent molars start to erupt. Application of the sealant at an early age of 6 years prevents cavity attacks from the very first stage.

So, now you know all about sealants and the benefits of dental sealants for kids. But, first, let us step into the aftercare routine post dental sealant procedure.

To ensure the durability of the sealant, it is essential to follow an aftercare routine post dental sealant process. After your child has gone through the painless procedure, you are responsible for letting them know how they should take care of the sealant. Here are the ways to do so:

• As the dental sealant preserves the biting areas of your child's teeth, there are still chances of tartar and plaque building up in the spaces between their teeth. To eliminate this issue, ask your child to brush their teeth on all the areas with their sealants.
• Please give them a soft-bristled toothbrush and a toothpaste that contains fluoride. Teach them to brush correctly and in between. Rinse the mouth twice or thrice after brushing to get rid of the food particles inside the mouth.
• Floss your kid’s teeth regularly to eliminate bacterial plaque and accumulation of food particles in the teeth.
• Do not forget to ask them to rinse their mouth with an antiseptic mouthwash to eliminate any loose food particles.
• Tell your child to avoid consuming hard food particles that can damage and break the sealants. Also, restrict your child from consuming chocolates or food containing sugar, as this might lead to bacterial attacks.

So, now that you know about dental sealants, their application, and their benefits, explain them to your child. Before proceeding to a dentist, try to have complete information about the procedure. Then, if you have any queries related to the process, you can ask your dentist about them. Also, be a regular visitor to the dental clinic for regular check-ups.