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How Much are Dental Sealants?

One of the easiest things to do for your preventative dental health is apply sealants onto your back teeth from an early age. The dental sealants are like a varnish over the rear teeth. Your dentists just applies the varnish with a brush and ensures that it has covered the tooth. Once the tooth is sealed with the varnish, it is much less prone to decay . A sealed tooth still can have dental caries. For example, the sealant is placed on the flat surface only of the tooth. If you have plague growing by the gum line, the dental bacteria could easily penetrate the enamel from the side of the tooth, causing decay to start.

However, with the back teeth, most of the problems start at the flat surfaces. It's too easy to get food stuck on the flat surfaces.

Dental sealants are relatively inexpensive. The cost is around $25-55 per tooth. So for eight teeth we are looking at between $200 and $440 which will give you great protection over five to ten years.

Some people are put off by the initial cost of $400. Don't be. It makes great economic sense when you understand what causes tooth decay. Once a dental restoration is performed, it means drilling into the enamel and permanently breaching the enamel wall that keeps the dental bacteria at bay. The secret is to never, never, have a filling or restoration done for as long as possible. Many adults will have witnessed themselves, that small filling they had as a child, was a large filling as a teen, a crown in their 30's and now they are looking at root canals and even implants.

If the sealants are applied when the children get their permanent teeth, and then reapplied in their teens, the chances are good they can get to college without fillings. Once the teeth are stong, healthy and in good condition, the chances of getting a filling later in life are reduced.

Evenn when you factor in the cost of a filling which can often run to $100 or more per filling, you can see it only takes a couple of fillings to pay for themselves.

There are natural alternatives to putting plastic coating over your teeth. See our articles on the best diet to strengthen enamel naturally, prevent cavities and remineralize your teeth.

There are also issues with BPA which is released by the dental sealants over time in the mouth. See our article on BPA and dental sealants here.