Monday, February 25, 2008

Sealant Problems - from Childhood to Adulthood

Here is another story, this one from a friend of mine:

My story: I received my first set of sealants when I was young, probably 6 or 8years old. They seemed to do their job for a while, but when I was 16 or so, my dentist decided they needed to be replaced; I have no idea if that's true. He must have done a pretty poor job, because when I got a check up this past summer (at age 23), the dentist found five cavities, all under my molar sealants.

What's worse, he had to use a special laser to detect them, because the teeth looked perfectly healthy on the outside; the decay was entirely under the sealants. One was so bad that the dentist was worried I would need a root canal (which, thankfully, I didn't) because it got so close to the root. Let me be clear about what happened here: I did not have any cavities except underneath the failed sealants where I was unable to clean. If my dentist hadn't caught the decay with the laser when he did, I could very easily have lost several teeth.

- Andrew in CA

4 comments:

ellie said...

As a dentist I have many concerns and fears about sealants.
This blog is the perfect place for parents to tell their stories and I congratulate you for sharing this experinece - so common and so sad.
It is also sad to know that there is research to show that eating xylitol regularly - along with good oral care( especially rinsing with dilute fluoride such as ACT) can give equal- possibly more- protection to permanent teeth than any sealant could offer.
I have my personal comments about sealants on my xylitol website www.zellies.com
Good luck with this blog- I hope more parents will join in and discuss this topic so as to alert others to this other side of sealants.
Ellie Phillips DDS

Unknown said...

Oops will never cover it. you know you can sue right? Its is hard enough that you had to pay for the sealants now you got them cavities that are under it. The bad part was you can't clean it. It happened to me twice before. Damn doctors had to pay me to shut up.

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Unknown said...

That must have hurt bad. I got my first tooth sealant when I was in Junior college. I am now 34 and still my sealants are intact.Maybe it's the dentist you should blame :)More power to your blog.

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Unknown said...
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