Sealant-filling

Up until recently, any decay in the grooves of permanent teeth — no matter how small — were treated by getting the tooth “numbed”, removing the entire groove, and filling it with a silver restorative material. Diagram “A” shows the relative size of the decay [ black dot ] and the size of the filling after tooth preparation [ shaded area ].

New techniques and materials now allow us to remove only the area that is decayed and replace it with a tooth-colored restorative material. Then, rather than removing the healthy part of the groove, we can place a sealant. Diagram “B” shows how this would appear, with the black dot now representing the size of the filling and the shaded area showing the area that is sealed, but not removed.

The advantages of this approach are:

1. Saves more healthy tooth structure
2. Preventive in nature
3. Tooth may not require “numbing”
4. Natural appearance

The disadvantages of this approach are:

1. Requires more steps and time to accomplish
2. Many insurance companies cover the procedure at a lower percentage
3. Your out-of-pocket responsibility may be higher per tooth