Pit and fissure caries killer - pit and fissure sealing

Hello, children, parents and friends. I am Cao Hui, and I have been engaged in children's oral prevention for more than 10 years. Today I will share the killer of pit and fissure caries - pit and fissure sealants. Seeing this topic, parents will definitely ask: What is pit and fissure sealant? Why do we need to do pit and fissure sealant? Since it is good for teeth, can it be done on all teeth? Let me start today's content explanation by answering the above three questions respectively.

First of all, what is pit and fissure sealing? As the name suggests, pit and fissure sealing is to seal the pits and fissures, that is, to fill these deep grooves with a material to form a smooth surface, so that bacteria are not easily retained, which will greatly reduce the incidence of tooth decay. In other words, it fills the small grooves and drives away the small bugs. The small bugs here are actually the bacteria on the teeth.

At this point, some parents may ask: Can we avoid fissure sealing if we just clean the fissures? This is my second question: Why do we need to seal the fissures? There are two reasons:

First, please look at these two pictures. If debris falls into these two grooves, which one is easier to clean? The answer is obvious. It must be the one on the right, because its groove is shallow and wide, and it is easy to enter. That means the deep and narrow groove on the left is difficult to clean.

The pits and fissures on our newly erupted teeth are deep and narrow. As we just said, deep grooves are difficult to clean and are prone to tooth decay. Next, let's take a look at these two pictures. The left picture is a longitudinal section of the pits and fissures, and the right picture is the most common example of washing cups in our lives.

First of all, the cup on the right is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Think about it: Can we use a brush like this to clean the cup thoroughly? Obviously, the red part at the bottom of the cup cannot be cleaned because the brush head is too large to enter, and the red area cannot be cleaned. The shape of the pits and fissures on the teeth is also like this, because the minimum diameter of the toothbrush sold on the market is 0.2-0.3MM, and the bottom of the pits and fissures is 0.1mm, which means that the bottom of the pits and fissures cannot be cleaned properly, and bacteria are easily retained, thereby increasing the risk of caries. The above is why pit and fissure sealing is necessary.

Finally, let's talk about which teeth can be treated? Since it is a pit and fissure sealant, we need to know where the pits and fissures are? Please look at this model. All these teeth with pits and fissures can be treated as long as they are free of cavities within one year of eruption. Especially the sixth tooth in the mouth, which erupts at around 6 years old, and because it is the first permanent tooth grown in our mouth, permanent teeth mean that they will not be replaced. Therefore, in order to reduce the caries rate, the country has been providing free pit and fissure sealants for sixth-year teeth for children aged 6-9 since 2008. Since 2019, the National Health Commission and the China Dental Disease Prevention and Control Foundation have jointly organized a large-scale public welfare activity called "Daisies in the Mountains, Building Dreams Together", which provides free pit and fissure sealants for all eligible children in poor counties. I am fortunate to be one of them. I will continue to pass it on so that every child has a happy childhood.

Finally, I hope that through today's study, everyone must have the concept of prevention > treatment, and secondly, go to a regular hospital for oral examination regularly to avoid missing the best prevention and treatment opportunities. So parents must pay attention to their children's teeth.