Dental Seals for Children?

[Mama Soltera]

Can anyone educate me and/or give me your thoughts/opinions on these. The dentist wants to do this on my children's teeth and I have never heard of them. They say it will protect the teeth and they just want to do it on their molars.

[mama1803]

We opted not to do sealants for our ds.  Most contain BPA.  There is a brand that claims to be BPA free, but studies have shown that, as the sealant degrades over time, the chemical reaction does release BPA (the original materials are made of a BPA-like substance).  Also, there have been several reports of children having allergic reactions to the sealants (mouth rashes, bleeding gums, swollen gums).  This was an important point for us because ds already has food and environmental allergies.  Ds has never had an cavities.

I no longer have any links of my research, but if you Google dental sealants you'll get tons of info.

[Mama Soltera]

Thanks for your response. I'm definitely not feeling good about getting them on my kids.The dentist will probably think I'm crazy but I'm used to dentist/doctors/nurses thinking that. :/

[Gemini529]

This is just anecdotal...but my brother, sister and I all had our teeth sealed as kids and none of us have ever had a cavity in any of those teeth. My husband and his brothers did not have this done...I'm not sure why...it probably wasn't covered under their insurance at the time but all of them have silver fillings all throughout the backs of their mouths.  My husband has a filling in every single one of his back teeth.  Like I said, it's just anecdotal and genetics/hygiene could play a role, too, but I found it interesting.

Anyway, at the time nobody talked about BPA so I guess my parents just decided to go for it.  I'm glad they did because I've never had a problem with my teeth.  

None of us ever had a problem with them and I remember many of my friends having it done, too.  If you don't do it, just make sure they are really good about brushing and flossing.  

[Momsteader]

I wish my parents had mine done. I am a very good brusher/flosser and I still have fillings in all my molars and also several crowns. My younger brother and sister got sealants and neither got any cavities at ALL until they were in their early 30s! I had my kiddos teeth sealed and they too are cavity free despite having a few when they were younger.