Do dentists still ‘paint’ adult teeth?

[TweezerMay]

Sorry, I can’t think of the proper term.

My dad (5) has one of her adult molars come through, right at the back.

I have it in some dim and distant part of my mind that you used to be able to get something put on your teeth at the dentist to prevent cavities. Is this something from the 80s or does it still happen?

Fissure sealant? My kids have had it done on their molars

Yes, my Grandchildren and a few of their friends (primary school age) have had it done this year. So did my Adult DD.

Generally it’s only done on newly erupted molars. It’s called fissure sealing as a pp said
It’s a type of plastic which bonds to the deep fissures on the biting surface of the tooth
It’s done as a preventative measure to stop the tooth decaying

Very occasionally it’s done to adults depending on their level of need But mostly it’s small children ( primary school age) that have it

Yes, both my DC have had fissure sealants applied to all their molar teeth.

Thanks everyone! I’ll look into getting this done on her new tooth 😊

Fluoride varnish is painted on to protect teeth as well. My kids have it every 6mths to protect their molars

It's indicated where there has been decay in primary teeth. It's not without complication and the evidence base is weak.

There's a good publication called "delivering better oral health" that is super informative.

Oh that’s interesting, thanks @Mrsmorton. Because I associate it with being a kid
40 20 years ago I wondered if it had been one of those things that had been ‘debunked’ that we’d look back at in the future and be like ‘they did WHAT to their teeth?’ I’ll have a look for that document.

It's a genuinely good read!

I wouldn't say they've been debunked but there's not the scatter gun approach now that there was. More targeted.

Best indicator for health is that you're interested

Long term Welsh study suggests that regular application of fluoride varnish has been more effective than fissure sealants. But as Mrsmorton has said it’s not a one size fits all. Fissures sealants are very technique sensitive and there are conflicting views regarding when how and what to use. As always the manufacturers push/fund a lot of the research so not all findings are as unbiased as they should be.

I had all my molars fissure sealed as did my sisters but mine were done age 9/10 my sisters much younger. I was the only one to remain decay free which sort of debunks the theory that doing them early is more effective. It’s more likely that my teeth were exposed to fluoride for longer so when sealed were probably already more resistant to decay.

Decay is much more than diet and eating habits. It is a disease and we do develop immunity to it but like other diseases it’s very variable. No one can predict the outcome of all the variables but we are absolutely sure that whatever your your own risk diet ( low sugar ), eating habits and oral hygiene are key.

Yes! I had this in 2006. It's still going strong

This is interesting - I have rubbbish teeth and asked my dentist if there was anything I could do to protect them and was told there wasn’t anything.

One of my ds was given fluoride paint (not the technical term ) to protect a couple of teeth but they didn’t even do it for all of them.

I wish there was some sort of magic tooth protection ‘paint’ that could be used - I do the best I can but would love to do more!

I had my teeth "plastic coated" when I was 9 or 10. I have had a lot of fillings, so not sure it prevented much, or maybe I would have been a toothless hag without it?