Preventive | Steinbicker Family Dentistry • Mebane, NC

Our Mebane dentists at Steinbicker Family Dentistry practice preventive dental care. Some examples of preventive care include teeth cleanings and sealants.

What is preventive dental care?

Preventive dentistry aims to incorporate dental procedures that increase good oral health.

Examples of preventive dentistry

• Adult teeth cleanings (i.e., adult prophy or prophylaxis)
• Children’s teeth cleanings (i.e., children’s prophy or prophylaxis, especially crucial for patients in orthodontics)
• Sealants (i.e., dental material that flows into the grooves of teeth to prevent tooth decay)
• Fluoride Varnish (i.e., vitamins for teeth; remineralize enamel to help prevent tooth decay)
• Oral hygiene instructions (i.e., OHI and using an electric toothbrush)
• Regular examinations or dental check-ups (i.e., Steinbicker Family Dentistry recommends visiting the dentist for a teeth cleaning and exam every six months)

What are dental sealants?

Our office uses sealants to prevent tooth decay. Many patients have deep pits and fissures (i.e., grooves) in their teeth. These grooves are often present in back teeth (i.e., molars). At a young age, we fill in these grooves with sealants. Our office uses BPA-free sealant material.

We place sealants by first ensuring that the tooth receiving a sealant is free of tooth decay. Then, we clean off the tooth and its grooves. A weak acid called etch sits on the tooth for 20 seconds and then is washed off. The etch creates tiny pores all over the top of the tooth.

These pores create a greater surface area for the sealants to stick. Lastly, we apply sealants to the top of the tooth and light cure it with a UV (i.e., ultraviolet) light. This UV light hardens the sealant material. As you can see, sealants fill in the grooves of teeth that are susceptible to food, plaque and ultimately tooth decay.

The importance of preventive dental care

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This saying is accurate in dental care as well. Our dentists fix tooth problems, so they do not become worse.

Regular dental checkups and teeth cleanings (i.e., at least once every six months) allows our dentists to help prevent problems before they happen. We can spot cavities when they are small. Also, our dental hygienists can inform you with oral hygiene instructions to help educate you ho to prevent oral diseases.