Sealants in San Tan Valley, AZ

When we apply a dental sealant, we paint a plastic coating on top of your teeth. This makes your teeth smooth getting rid of the rough edges, depressions, and grooves that are commonly found on teeth. It is essentially a protective coating against tooth decay and cavities. The most common place to paint sealants is on back teeth since they are often irregular. They can also be very hard to reach, even if you brush your teeth regularly. We use it more on children though we do perform sealants on adults too!

• Seals the deep grooves where decay usually starts
• Quick and completely painless — no drilling, no numbing
• Most often placed on children's molars
• Adults with deep grooves benefit too
• Checked at routine visits and re-applied as needed

Most cavities in children and teenagers start on the chewing surfaces of the back teeth, and they start there for a structural reason: the grooves are narrower than a toothbrush bristle. No amount of diligent brushing reaches the bottom of them. A sealant removes that vulnerability by filling the groove. It is also about as easy as dentistry gets. There is no drilling, no anesthetic and no discomfort, which makes it a good early experience for a child who is nervous — an appointment where nothing unpleasant happens builds real confidence for later visits. Compared with the filling it prevents, a sealant is quicker, cheaper and preserves the tooth entirely. A filling, by contrast, means permanently removing part of the tooth.

The tooth is cleaned and dried, then a gel is applied briefly to roughen the enamel very slightly so the sealant bonds well. The tooth is rinsed and dried again, the liquid sealant is painted into the grooves, and a curing light hardens it in seconds. The whole process takes a few minutes per tooth and involves nothing that hurts. Your child can eat straight afterward. Sealants are durable but not permanent — they wear gradually under chewing and can chip. We check them at every routine visit and re-apply if needed. Sealants protect the chewing surface only, so brushing and flossing still matter for the sides of the teeth and the gumline.