Dental Sealants - Long Island City, NY
Sealing teeth is like caulking the bathroom
A dental sealant is a preventive dentistry treatment which places a thin flowable composite resin into the pits, fissures, and deep grooves of your tooth. These surfaces are highly prone to decay due to their tendency to trap food and bacteria. By sealing over it, it helps to decrease the risk of them turning into cavities.
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What we offer
Here at Jackson Ave Dental, our dentists can help seal your teeth that are at high risk of decay with dental sealants in Long island City. The dentition which we can seal for you are the posterior teeth, the molars and premolars.
Unfortunately, the anterior teeth tend to lack grooves and pits/fissures so they're usually not eligible to receive this procedure.
Molar Sealants
Molar teeth have the largest occlusal surface in the mouth, thus they have the most amount of grooves, pits, and fissures. In other words they're the most prone to cavities.
Premolar Sealants
The premolars can have deep pits and fissures as well. However, they've less of them than the molars since they're smaller in size. These can be sealed but not as frequently.
When a dental sealant is necessary
Sealants for teeth are done preventively so that anticipated or suspected problems do not occur. Most notably, they are used to prevent cavities caused by bacteria eating sugar in your mouth.
When it's needed:
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Deep grooves
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Prominent pits
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Deep fissures
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Patient with high risk for cavities
Contraindication
We would like to emphasize that teeth sealants are done preventatively. That means if the tooth has already fallen to decay, a sealant would be the incorrect treatment.
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Teeth that already have a cavity will need to be treated restoratively such as with a dental filling. The difference is that the cavity filling procedure involves drilling out decay before placing a restoration. Sealing teeth does not require decay excavation at all.
Benefits of sealants
How we can help
What to expect during procedure: 15 mins
A sealant treatment with our long island city dentists at Jackson Ave Dental is fairly quick and can be done in a single visit.
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Dry the teeth.
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Condition the enamel with etch.
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Apply primer and bonding agent.
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Place dental sealant.
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Light cure to harden.
Costs
Sealant procedures for teeth are covered typically covered at 100% if you have a PPO dental insurance. They are categorized as a preventative procedure and that is the usual coverage.​
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However, you should be aware that most insurances will have an age limitation for benefits. Those age 13/14 or younger will usually have coverage while adults rarely if ever have any insurance benefits for it. ​
FAQs
How long do they last?
They will typically last for many years before they slowly disintegrate on their own. Over time you may notice that small pieces of it become missing. At that point you can either replace it or leave it as is.
Dental sealants for adults
Sealants are typically done on children and adolescents because insurance will cover the treatment for them. It is usually not covered for adult so that is one reason why it is not often done for adults. ​ Aside from that, what we've noticed is that adults tend to be a lot more sensitive to changes in their bite when sealants are placed. Most people cannot tolerate that extra layer of resin in their teeth grooves. ​ Nonetheless, there are certain situations where adults can tolerate it and they can benefit from getting this preventative procedure done.
Sealant vs Filling
Sealants are a preventative procedure while fillings are a restorative procedure. The former is done to prevent cavities from occurring while the latter is done after decay has happened. Basically, once the tooth has become decayed, the cavity will need to be drilled out and excavated prior to filling it in with a resin. The filling includes the excavation and that is the difference.