What Can Make a Dental Sealant Break Down?
By John McAllister | Published on December 13, 2010 | 0 Comments
Dental sealants cannot last forever, no matter how good a job a dentist does when putting them on. But as John McAllister DDS explains, patients shouldn’t let that fact stop them from getting sealants in the first place.
According to Dr. McAllister, a well-known dentist in Downey, California, dentists need to prepare their patients for the possibility that their dental sealants may break down over the course of the next one to two years. If this happens, patients need to know that it doesn’t mean that anything has gone wrong; rather, it is just a natural part of having a sealant put on.
This makes even more sense when considering where it is that sealants are usually placed – on the tops of the teeth in the back of the mouth. Dr. McAllister says that these are the same teeth that people chew with, causing dental sealants in the back of the mouth to break down more quickly than those put on people’s front teeth.
As a sealant breaks down and comes off over time, it needs to be replaced. The exact length of time that patients can expect to go between appointments will vary, but Dr. McAllister says that most patients will need to have additional sealants put on at least once every two years.
Although there is a chance that small pieces of sealant could come off without a patient realizing it, Dr. McAllister says that recent studies have shown that teeth with broken down sealant are still better protected than those that never had any sealant put on in the first place. Dr. McAllister explains that sealant is still one of the best preventative measures that dentists have available. In Downey, he often recommends that patients of all ages have sealants put on – not just children.
In order to make sure that the sealant he is putting on will actually be effective, Dr. McAllister always cleans the grooves of the teeth he is sealing as thoroughly as possible prior to placing the sealant. If a dentist fails to adequately clean out the grooves in a patient’s teeth before putting a sealant on, then decay can and will grow underneath the sealant. To prevent this from happening, Dr. McAllister follows the same cleaning protocol when putting on a sealant as he does when doing a filling. Dr. McAllister has found that patients get better results when he does this, which is something that sets him apart from other dentists in the Downey area.
*Disclaimer: The information on this website is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.