Every parent wants to please his child. That's why on the way back home he often goes to the market for buying a chocolate, jam or some other sweets. Unfortunately, it's rare when the parent giving his child a candy thinks of that the next routine inspection in dental clinic will reveal caries and a child will need a filling to be put onto his tooth, which wouldn't please him, no doubts. Someone may pay no attention to this: the tooth is spoiled, so what? It is anyway a milk one. Soon a new healthy tooth will erupt.
The role of primary (milk) teeth shouldn't be unappreciated: up to 12 years old they reserve a place for those teeth which would remain with a human during all his life. If due to caries a tooth will have to be removed, a tooth row displacement can happen and this problem correction would take a long time.
As caries prevention the dentist can suggest to make a fissures sealing. This is, by the way, much relevant not only for children but also for adults. Fissure is striations and grooves on the tooth surface. Pieces of food get very often struck in such grooves, plus to this bacteria accumulate in here too. Microorganisms feel themselves very well in these grooves, because they can easily make a lodgment and multiply. If one often uses different kinds of sweets and drinks, the bacteria get really ideal conditions for multiplying. As the result, caries starts to progress.
Properly made sealing procedure eliminates the risk of tooth diseases as long as the patch remains in its place. According to the statistics, during the first years nearly 80% of the seal remains in a place it was put into, after 5 years - 70%, after 10 years – only 30%.
Still, one shouldn't think that if the fissure is closed tightly, then there is nothing to happen. It's not like that. If someone has a harmful habit of hard and strong objects biting, the sealant can crack or partly break. Same can happen because of some other circumstances. Besides, the patch installation is just one out of many ways of tooth protection. Therefore, in any case, you must have regular check-ups in dental clinic. And especially one mustn't give up brushing his teeth with toothpaste and floss usage.
The sealing procedure is absolutely painless and does not take much time. First the dentist cleans the tooth with special brushes that are rotating at a low speed. This step is very important, because the success of the procedure depends on the purity of the surface. After that, the tooth is fenced off from saliva with a cottonwool and a special gel is put on it for few seconds, which is made for increasing the surface roughness for better sealant adhesion. After that the gel is washed away, and the doctor starts to distribute sealant all around the fissures. Then, using a special light, the material is going to be hardened. And at last, the final stage comes up: the process of excess sealant removal for it not interfere the patient.
If it is necessary, the dentist can use fluoride sealants which would help to strengthen the tooth up till the end. Especially for making children to feel calm in dental chair the procedure can be carried out with fun and in a playful way, because sealants can be of various colors, with sparkles and without them.
Fissure sealing lasts from 5 up to 45 minutes depends on the number of teeth that need to be closed.
Some studies claim that the membrane formed on teeth can even stop already started to progress caries, because it prevent the substances access which are necessary for bacteria to continue their destructive work.
