Dental Sealants

Dental sealants are thin plastic coatings that are applied to the chewing surfaces of your teeth. It’s easy for food particles and bacteria to get trapped in the deep grooves of your molars even when you brush well and often. Sealants form a protective layer over the tooth, covering the grooves, to keep bacteria out.

Everyone can benefit from dental sealants. While you can get them at any age, we highly recommend them for the younger crowd as children are most prone to cavities between six- and 14-years-old. By applying sealants early, we can prevent problems. However, it’s never too late and sealants are a simple way to ward off the need for restorative treatments.

Applying sealants only takes about 15 minutes and you won’t feel a thing during the process. First, we clean your teeth to make sure there are no food particles or bacteria hiding. Then, we dry the tooth and drop a bit of acid solution onto it to roughen up the surface so the sealing material will stick. Once the surface is ready, we simply paint on the sealant and let it dry. That’s it!

Sealants last about 10 years before they need to be reapplied. We’ll keep an eye on them for you and look for signs of deterioration during your regular dental cleanings and checkups. Since sealants wear away over time, reapplying them is simply a matter of painting on another coating.