Sealants for baby teeth - are they a good idea? Also, disking??

[MarinaTwinMom]

We're trying to decide what to do about DD's teeth.

T and K wouldn't let our regular dentist do much more than count teeth at previous visits, so we finally took them to a pediatric dentist in February. They loved it there, and let them do x-rays and cleanings. Anyway, the pediatric dentist said that DD has "deeper than normal" grooves, so he recommended putting sealants on five of them. He said that a couple of the grooves "might" be cavities, but he won't know until he starts roughing them up for the sealants. (The x-rays did not show cavities, but he said that the grooves still could be cavities.) He also recommended "disking" two of her regular teeth to make more room for permanent teeth. He also recommended using laughing gas.

All that work is going to cost between $318 and $913, depending on whether or not cavities need to be filled, and we're not even sure it's necessary!

I asked our regular dentist once, and he said he doesn't recommend sealants. Our insurance won't cover them, either. I'm thinking about taking her back to him, but she probably won't let him do much anyway, and he'll probably be ticked that we took her to the pediatric dentistry place. (The last time we took her to him, we ended up paying something like $150 per child for an exam and cleaning. The kids only let him count their teeth. No cleaning, though the woman did set up cleaning kits, hence the charge. So it was $300 for tooth counting. I trust his opinion more, but obviously, we can't afford to keep paying that kind of money unless the kids are actually getting cleanings and real exams!)

What would you do?

Do your kids have sealants, or not? Does your dentist think they're a good idea?

And shouldn't we wait until a cavity actually looks like a cavity before putting DD through all the trauma of having it filled?

[MarinaTwinMom]

(I'm wondering if we can still go back to the pediatric dentistry place, but tell them money is an issue, so we don't want to do anything unnecessary. If she really does have a cavity, we'll take care of it immediately. I just hate to have sealants and disking done if it isn't really something that's necessary, because it's very expensive and because it's going to be an ordeal for DD. If the sealants really are a good idea, then we'll do them, but I'm wondering ... why don't our other dentist and our insurance company recommend them?)

[MarinaTwinMom]

(I'm posting this now because the appointment was supposed to be on Monday. We've rescheduled it, though, because DD is now sick.)

[Paula_in_DE]

I was told that sealants on baby teeth are a waste of money. Most dentist won't do them until perm. teeth come in.

[Laura1]

Miss K goes to a peds dentist and they don't recommend them until the perm. teeth come in. They told me around age 6 or 7.

[soccergirlzmom]

My two oldest(6 and 8) just got sealants put on their permanent teeth at the last visit....They only do permanent teeth and they said it will last anywhere from 3-5 years. Our insurance did cover this procedure......and my dentist did tell me if our insurance didn't cover it they could work out something.....not sure what he meant, b/c our insurance accepted the claim.

Kim (p.s. I love the idea and reason behind the sealants)

[Maddy00]

I wouldn't even recommend them on permanent teeth. I had sealants put on my back molars because they had deep grooves. My insurance wouldn't pay for it either so it was out of pocket. Well fast forward 2 yrs later and I ended up with a cavity in two of those teeth with sealants. Basically they sealed in bacteria and I ended up with a cavity in a place that I've never had one before! I won't do sealants again or on any of the kids' teeth.

[larasmom]

we had lara's 6 year molars sealed......no cavities

[ToriaV1]

I did not read the other replys but I am sure that you have already gotten some great advice.

My dd has had a lot of dental work done. Her teeth are VERY close together on the bottom but her ped dentist has done everything under the sun to her but never suggested disking.
The sealants are supposed to be used on the new adult teeth. At least this is the info on the phamplets I got from dd's dentist. I would just go back to the family dentist and try taking them till they feel safe enough to get a cleaning. My dd is scared of the dentist now-she has four crowns on her front teeth that have been replaced several times. If I had it to do over I would not have put her through it all.

[MarinaTwinMom]

Okay, I think I'm going to take her back to our regular dentist one more time to see how that goes.

I just can't see putting her through all that (and paying all that money) if it's questionable.

Maybe now that she's had a cleaning, she'll be more comfortable letting them do it there.