Fissure Sealants
Fissures are the grooves or valleys that occur on the biting surfaces of your back teeth. If the fissures are deep and narrow a toothbrush bristle will not fit into the fissure and will not remove the plaque or food. Decay tends to occur in certain places in teeth and the very bottom of a fissure is one of these spots.
In children and adolescents these fissures are particularly vulnerable. Fissure sealants are hard, tooth coloured, plastic coatings that fill these fissures and prevent decay. Placing a sealant is a very simple and straight forward procedure and normally takes a few minutes per tooth. Sealants can wear and come off. If this happens there is no damage to the underlying tooth but the sealant may need to be replaced.
Sealants are normally placed in adolescents after the adult teeth erupt. They are not routinely placed in adults. This is because if you have reached adulthood with a sound tooth the tooth will probably remain sound unless your lifestyle changes. Also adults tend to get decay in different parts of the tooth (places that cannot be protected with sealants).