If you take the right preventative steps, you can keep oral conditions like cavities at bay. The most common preventative measure is daily oral hygiene, such as brushing and flossing your teeth. Another lesser-known preventative step you can take is to coat your teeth with dental sealants.

Dental sealants are comprised of ceramic and plastic, and dentists paint them onto teeth to protect those teeth from cavities. According to the CDC, dental sealants can protect teeth from up to 80% of cavities for two years after application.  After two years, the level of protection that dental sealants provide declines steadily.

Dental sealants seal pits and grooves in teeth

The smooth surfaces of teeth, such as the front and sides of teeth, are less prone to cavities than the rough biting surfaces of teeth. This is because the biting surfaces of teeth are rough and covered with pits, grooves, and cusps. Food debris and oral bacteria can cling to the rough surfaces of teeth easily. And this is especially true of sticky foods like bread and pasta.

When food lodges in the pits and grooves of teeth, tooth decay-causing bacteria can feed on that food and then secrete acids that destroy tooth enamel. Dental sealants cover the pits and grooves of teeth, preventing food and bacteria from clinging to those areas. Because of this, the risk of cavities affecting the sealed teeth decreases dramatically.

All your teeth can benefit from dental sealants

All teeth have some pits or grooves in them. So you can opt to protect all of your teeth with dental sealants for optimal protection. However, the teeth that dentists most commonly seal are the teeth in the back of the mouth. The back teeth, from the premolars to the molars, often have more pits and grooves than the teeth in the front of the mouth.

Children and adults can benefit from dental sealants

Although anybody of any age can benefit from the protection that dental sealants provide, young children are the best candidates for dental sealants. This is because the first set of teeth, the primary teeth, is crucial to the proper development of children's jawbones and oral dentition.

The primary teeth act as placeholders for secondary teeth. So if a primary tooth is lost to dental decay before the secondary tooth is ready to erupt, the secondary tooth could erupt in the wrong position and cause problems like tooth crowding and misalignment.

Protecting your young children's teeth with dental sealants will help to keep those teeth healthy until the secondary teeth are ready to erupt and replace the primary teeth. Contact dental services today for more information.