Dental sealants are used to protect the deep grooves in the tooth from becoming decayed. According to the Surgeon General's report on oral health, dental sealants may reduce cavities in school aged children by up to 70%.
School-based dental programs provide children with essential dental care, including dental sealants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will provide approximately $22 million in funding over the next five years, to 16 states. This funding is used to help these states improve their school-based dental programs to provide the best care possible for children from low income families.
Are you interested to know what your state's oral health plan is? Take a look at this state-by state chart, to see what steps are being taken to improve oral health where you reside.
Do they plan on making this into a nationwide program if there is success with this?
Great Question, I’ll look into it!
I think it’s good way to control the deep grooves in the tooth from becoming decayed. I wanna say it shall start on world wide so that the disease can be control as soon as possible. At last “Children are future of a country.”
The key is prevention
Nice article
I did not know they were providing this service in schools. Excellent!!
How about encouraging the kids to drink plain milk (not chocolate or strawberry or other flavored milks) and eating nutritious foods? Oh…and brushing at least twice a day and flossing several times a week? Won’t a sealant just invite them to eat more junk? Just my opinion…
Catching those vulnerable 6 year molars would be a great service to may of these vulnerable young children.
Here in Toronto I’ve seen many young immigrants that lack basic knowledge of oral hygiene.
Shawn, I prefer minimally-invasive composite restorations to sealants.
I would rather clean out the grooves completely and fill them rather than risk trying to seal over incipient decay and having it decay further.
This being a school based program, I wonder if glass ionomer restorations like Fuji IX would be a good choice?
The whole point is to get those kids through the cavity-prone years.
Joe Bulger DDS
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