Sealants

Are you looking for a way to protect your children and yourself from tooth decay? You might want to try dental sealants. These treatments are long-lasting and easy on the patient. At the Miami Beach and North Miami Beach offices of Drs. Ressler, Hirschl, and Lelchuk, we provide this service.

A sealant is a small coating that covers the crevices in a molar or premolar. Our chewing teeth have deep indentations between their raised bits (called cusps). Those indentations can easily become covered in food debris that many patients, particularly younger ones, have difficulty brushing away. If bacteria take hold in an indentation, they may cause decay that will have to be drilled away and replaced with a partial crown.

Sealants can be placed in just a few minutes. After the teeth have been cleaned, they will be etched with mild acid to increase their surface area. The wet sealant will be painted on and hardened with a blue light. The patient should be able to eat normally within a few hours. Sealants smooth out crevices, but they still leave the tooth textured enough to chew normally. They also provide a tooth with extra protection against direct acidic erosion and can last for over a decade before needing to be redone.

Dr. Allen Ressler, Dr. Andrew Hirschl, and Dr. Ira Lelchuk operate from two locations. To schedule an appointment at the location at Mount Sinai Medical Center, 4300 Alton Road, Suite 1190, Miami Beach, Florida, 33140, call 305-532-1444. To schedule an appointment at Intracoastal Mall, 3909 NE 163^rdSt, Suite 310, North Miami Beach, Florida, 33160, call 305-949-2630. They can also be reached on their website, Miami Dental through a contact form.

Why Should Children Spit their Toothpaste?

When children learn to brush their teeth, it is important for them to know to spit the toothpaste out afterward. People may wonder why that is. The answer is fluorosis, the discoloration of teeth due to excessive fluoride consumption, and we at the dental offices of Ressler, Hirschl, and Lelchuk want our patients to understand more about it.

When children’s teeth are forming, an excessive amount of fluoride can cause staining on a deep level. Fluorosis is not common and most cases are only apparent to dental professionals doing an examination. But in the worst-case scenarios, it can cause teeth to appear brown or to have white web-like patterns on them. Fluoride helps to prevent cavities and dentists commonly apply it to children’s teeth in order to protect them, but a child who swallows their toothpaste is at risk of consuming too much.

When children are learning to brush, parents should emphasize the importance of only using a pea-sized amount of toothpaste and of spitting. Parents also should not give their children fluoride supplements unless instructed to do so by one of the child’s doctors. If the teeth do get stained, the issue is only cosmetic and may be hidden with bonding or veneers.

Dr. Allen Ressler, Dr. Andrew Hirschl, and Dr. Ira Lelchuk operate from two locations. To schedule an appointment at the location at Mount Sinai Medical Center, 4300 Alton Road, Suite 1190, Miami Beach, Florida, 33140, call 305-532-1444. To schedule an appointment at Intracoastal Mall, 3909 NE 163^rdSt, Suite 310, North Miami Beach, Florida, 33160, call 305-949-2630. They can also be reached on their website, Miami Dental through a contact form.