pit and fissure sealing of childrens teeth

[atkrhome]

Does anyone have any good or bad points regargding this procedure?

[CiderMonkey]

when me and my bother were young my mum took us to the dentist to have fissure seals. I am 27 now and my teeth have always been healthy. Whether or not this is partly due to the fissure seals, or wholly on the fact that my mum was so very strict on teeth cleaning, i don't know.

[happy_face]

Having worked in a dental surgery I have seen lots of really bad teeth in children. Dentist recommend to have their adult teeth fissure sealed. It's a flouride that gets put in all the fissures in the molars to prevent caries etc sticking. They usually only do it for children because it's not cost effective for them to it on adults as dentist on NHS don't get paid much for fissure seals and they are a bit time consuming. They would do it on adults if you don't really have any holes and you want to preserve your teeth or if you pay privately. As a "perk" of the job I got all my molars fissure sealed and I can only recommend it. The only slight problem there might be to them is when they're initially applied you feel like you can't close your mouth together properly and this can feel a little strange and sometimes a  little sore. But after a day or so you will automatically have ground them down and you don't feel anything.

Hope this helps

[Morrisonker]

Is this filling in the molars to prevent cavities?  if so I'd go for it.  I'm ashamed to say I haven't always been good to my teeth but I had this done about 10 years ago and I've never had a filling yet. 

[happy_face]

Yes Morrisonker

[Englishbird]

exactly the same as cidermonkey - i had it done as a child, my teeth are very healthy and i've only ever had two fillings and that was two years ago (i'm 30). Again couldn't possible say whether it was a product of the fissure sealing, but don't think it can hurt.

[atkrhome]

Thanks for the info :-)

What price should I expect to pay??

[Lindylou]

My three sons all had this done when they were children - not on the NHS though.  And it cost lots!  But they are now in their mid to late twenties and not a filling between them.

[happy_face]

For children under 18 it's free on the NHS. It's 5 years ago since I worked in a dental surgery and prices always go up every year (as they do) but then it was around �7.50 per tooth. So expect �10-12 now.
Privately dentist can charge what they want. I know mine charges �25 per tooth

[atkrhome]

Jeeez!!

My dentist told me it wasnt available on NHS for my kids and it would cost �35 per tooth !!!

[spammylou]

Am 34 and had this done when I was about 7. I only have two fillings, so that's not bad going is it? I would say it is worth it!