RESIN FILLINGS OR SEALANTS PREVENT CAVITIES
In all your molars at the back of your mouth, as well as in your premolars, there are descents and ascents. Take a look inside – your teeth actually resembles a mountain scape, with hills and valleys. At the bottom of these valleys, you will find grooves or furrows. They are called fissures in dental terminology. Cavities are almost never found on a mountain top, since the teeth in this location are round and easy to brush clean. The typical location for a cavity, provided it is the first hole in the tooth, is in the fissures of the tooth. Logically enough, the fissures are a prime location for the bacteria to hide away. And as most people know:
The informally known “Karius and Bactus” (the trolls from in Norwegian children’s books personifying caries and bacteria) are notoriously attracted to sweets! This goes for a lot of other sugary things: no sugar, no caries. If you like most Danes choose to let sugar figure regularly in your diet, your risk of cavities increases. And you need to brush exceptionally well to avoid a cavity in a fissure.
Why do we get cavities?
If the bacteria stays in the fissures long enough, they will create an entrance and start to work their way through the dentine layer, which is the outer layer of the tooth. If they penetrate the dentine layer, they reach the jaw bone. This area is softer and easier to dissolve. And from there on, it escalates quickly. The bacteria are spread into the dentine layer, almost like a reverse mushroom. It undermines and weakens the dentine layer. The tooth is then turned into what is best described as a house with a hard, thin roof covering. And the roof of the house may come crashing down any minute! This is one of the reasons why it is absolutely possible to develop a cavity seemingly over night.
Sometimes we are being asked: how can a cavity develop so fast? The answer is that the hole has been there for quite some time. 80% of cavities can be avoided if they are caught early. This is documented in a large scale scentific investigation from the Danish Children and Youth’s Dental Care. This confirmed that fissure sealants prevented 80% of the kids from having their teeth drilled at a later date. This is one of the main reasons why it is important to see a dentist regularly, and that you don’t wait until the cavity emerges by itself.
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Worst case scenario is that the tooth aches long before the cavity can be felt, seen or noticed by you. And once you have reached that stage, a much more extensive treatment is called for. Usually both a root canal treatment and a crown fitting will be needed, which is very expensive as well as detrimental for the tooth.
A resin filling without drilling into the tooth is a modern and very considerate treatment. It is also known as a fissure sealant.
PREVENT ROOT CANAL TREATMENTS BY GETTING FISSURE SEALANTS
At Valby Tand – Tandlægerne ved Valby Station, both dentists and dental hygienists are ready to help you avoid future root canal treatments. Explicitly made for this purpose, fissure sealants are a fantastic, small, considerate and cheap way to make resin fillings. Fissure sealants works by having the teeth thoroughly cleaned, and thin resin fillings are deposited into the fissures. The bacteria are now eliminated and further intrusion from other bacteria and sugar have effectively been prevented. In the future, it will be much easier for you to clean the tooth, seeing as you are now brushing a rounded surface instead of an inaccessible crevice. Valby Tand – Tandlægerne ved Valby Station will assist you in keeping your teeth healthy.
