 Hello everybody, this is Andrea with dental ill tutoring another study video for you. So definitely keep checking back. This is a new thing where every Monday I am going to upload a study videos for you. So I'm teaching you a topic. And I'm going to also start going through some questions as well. So after I teach you a topic. I'm going to ask you questions and then I'm hoping on the other end of this screen here, you'll be thinking about the questions making no and then thinking about the answers to so this is going to be a lot of fun. So in this video, let's talk sealants our study session today is going to be about sealants so let me share my screen for you guys here. So I'm pulling up actually a PowerPoint. This is the exact PowerPoint that I used to teach my dental hygiene and dental assisting students in the board exam prep Academy so if you haven't checked that out yet please do you guys. I did the link for you guys at the bottom at dental l.com. If you want more of these types of study videos more mock exams more lectures. I teach every topic that you have to know for the board exam inside the board exam prep Academy. I've been teaching now since 2005. So a long time, I want to help you guys pass. So what are sealants. This is basically what a sealant looks like let's keep it simple. It's not a composite filling it's not an amalgam feeling it's just simply a sealant that is placed over the tooth to fill in any deep pits that the tooth has so why would we put on a sealant sealants are primarily for a sealant where we would put it on their first and second year molars those come in age six and age 12, because typically children don't brush as well it's very easy to get a teeth in their permanent teeth way at the back, because they're not brushing better for us to apply a sealant to make that tooth a lot more smooth, and that way they cannot get a cavity so this is why we do it. So let me just move the slide here so I talked about this a little bit why would we put on a sealant to make the tooth smoother this is a really good picture I'm going to make it bigger for you guys oh sorry just for a second. So basically, this is the tooth nice and smooth this is the tooth that it looks like before the sealant you can see pits, everything in there. A sealant is a very good idea to make everything nice and smooth and harder to get a cavity because cavities are no fun for anybody, especially for children. When would you not do a sealant. So this is an extreme example but this is a child that has cavities, you do not put a sealant on a cavity because you're covering up the problem. What can happen is you put a sealant over the cavity, and the cavities just going to get bigger it's going to get worse in some textbooks in some offices, they're thinking is you seal up the cavity you starve the cavity of oxygen and it doesn't get worse but in my experience, that's not the case. If you seal up a cavity by mistake with a sealant, it's going to get worse this is why it's very important before you place a sealant to have the dentist check to see if there's a cavity or not. If the tooth is sticky that usually indicates a cavity, and you should probably get a filling instead of a sealant by sometimes it's not a cavity sometimes an x-ray needs to be taken to make sure there's no cavities present yet. So one thing to tell the parents is the sooner you can get the sealants on the better before it becomes a cavity and then you have to do a filling. The child has to go through a needle all kinds of not so much not so fun things, but a sealant is very easy the child can do that. So just some reasons why you wouldn't put on a sealant. Another reason is if you're putting sealants on a primary tooth on a baby tooth which I've never done, they're going to fall out so why would you do that. Don't do it. You can't put sealants in between the teeth. So in between the teeth you don't have deep pits and fissures it's just the occlusals but that's one way you wouldn't put on a sealant is in between the teeth. Another reason is if the patient is just simply uncooperative I've had six year olds that's that like sit there perfectly they're amazing I can do anything. I've had other six year olds who are kicking screaming crying. I'm not going to put sealants on a kicking screaming child, because the sealants aren't going to last they're going to pop off not so fun. Trouble shooting again you guys. This is more for after the sealant is placed. If there's holes in the sealant. If the patient complains of the bite being too high that has to be fixed. If it pops off right away that means that too much saliva got into it. I do talk a lot more about this inside the board exam prep Academy so definitely have a look if you feel like you need to know more. This is just basically some trouble shooting for you. Um, there are different types of sealants I'm not going to go into this too much because you really don't need to need to know this but basically the best sealants are like cured. Okay, you don't want the ones that aren't like cured they're supposed to cure on their own, but you don't want the patients sitting with their mouth open for one minute. It's hard enough to get them sit with their mouth open, a child especially for 30 seconds. So the light curing means it cures right away you don't have to worry and that's much better. There's different types of sealants again. We talked about the ones that are unfilled and the ones that that are filled. The unfilled are helpful for in the dental office, they will wear away on their own so if the dental assistant is applying the sealants or the dental hygienists they're kind of new at it they're having a hard time, and they put too much on and the bite is going to be high. And the patient is kind of biting like this. It's going to wear down over time but if you have another type of sealant, then the dentist has to come in, polish down the sealant material with the high speed handpiece. That takes their time they don't want to do it. It's annoying. If the dentist has to keep doing that they're not going to ask the assistant or the hygienist to place the sealant anymore. Sometimes the unfilled is better, especially those that are just learning how to do sealants because they wear down over time. Placement okay you guys so I'm going to briefly go over this with you placement you do I have, I'm just checking my other slides here okay so I have these in the slides but these are for obviously the board exam prep academy students so but feel free to take a picture and show you guys if you want. So I'm going to show you this one, because it does have a good trace set up here I kind of explain everything that you need. And let's go through the steps so I don't forget anything admittedly, I don't apply sealants often, because I prefer to use something called silver diamine fluoride which is a liquid that takes two seconds that kills any bacteria that might be causing a cavity. In my experience, sealants pop off so easily maybe I'm just not very good at putting on sealants hey we can't be perfect at everything. So admittedly I don't do sealants myself, but when I was working in a dental office I did do them often So first the tooth needs to be clean so i'm going to read through the steps for you with a pumice paste, you don't want to use toothpaste you don't want to use profi paste because that has too much stuff in there. That is not really cleaning the tooth it's just kind of adding a protective coating, but it needs to be clean so with pumice and water kind of like a baking soda, you want to create a paste. You want to rinse and dry that thoroughly and then the edge comes in, you need to put the edge on that tooth, if it gets on the tissues it's going to burn a oh you don't want that be careful. After 20 to 30 seconds because the edge just have to sit there, you want to rinse with water rinse it very very well and you want to also make sure that the area isn't saturated with witness with saliva. That's important after the edge it needs to look like a chalky white color if it's not you need to read for probably 10 seconds, you don't have to do it for the full 30 but probably for 10 seconds. Once you get that chalky white appearance you can place the sealant I suggest using either a micro brush or a thin explorer to just kind of like walk yourself through the sealant so you so you don't cause any air bubbles. Or a micro brush I find that that's better, but sometimes I forget to put the micro brush on the tray I used to do this in the dental office all the time. So then I just quickly pick up the explorer run it along so there's no air bubbles and then light cure it it is nice and hard check to make sure that the sealant's not going to pop off with your explorer. We make mistakes we can't be perfect but if it pops off guess what you've got to go through the whole process again. Those are the steps. Easy right so much easier than the patient getting a cavity having to come back to do a filling they're going to need a needle that the dentist has to prep the to put on a rubber damn oh my god. sealants are so much easier. Does anybody have any questions about sealants here's another great photo just kind of step by step again if you guys want to learn more I have full sealant classes where we talk about all of this inside the board exam prep Academy. Comment below if you guys have any questions I am now starting to upload new study videos every Monday on YouTube so please click like to this video. That does help me and my channel this is absolutely free so you're not paying for my time right now but it would be great to click like because that does help me and stay tuned every Monday for new study tip videos. Let's go through some questions I almost forgot questions everybody. Everybody's always excited about the mock exam questions aren't you so after I asked the question if you guys want to think about it. Stop the video because then I'm going to go over the answer so feel free to pause the video if you're thinking about the question. Question number one is if after you etch the tooth. Better question. Once you etch the tooth after you etch the tooth and you and you rinse the etch off. What should the tooth look like what is the appearance of the tooth. And no I'm not going to give you multiple choice answers here. I want you guys to think about it this is critical thinking. So let me ask you guys again after you etch the tooth it has been rinsed off what should the tooth look like, and then you can put the sealant on positive video if you need to think about it. The tooth needs to be chalky white. That is the term on the board exam if they ask you that question the term is chalky white. It's not white. It's not clean, you know, these won't be the answers, white, clean, yellow, brown, no difference. The answer is chalky white after you apply the etch it needs to be chalky white after you rinse it away. Question number two. If the tooth isn't chalky white after you place the etch what do you do. Pause the video if you need to think about it. You can re etch but not for the full 20 or 30 seconds, 10 seconds is usually enough so if on the board exam, if it says to you you now need to re etch the tooth because you didn't get that chalky white appearance. How long do you need to etch for 10 to 20 seconds 20 to 30 seconds five to 10 second know which one are you going to pick. Now every textbook is different it could be five seconds it could be 10 seconds it could be 15 seconds, but it's not 20 or 30. Does that make sense 510 or 15 but usually the lower the number the better. Okay, if it's two seconds that's not going to do anything, but 510 or 15 question number three. When would you not put on a sealant. When would you not put on a sealant. Okay, pause the video if you need to think about the answer. You would not place a sealant on primary teeth because they're going to follow anyway, you would not place a sealant on a child who's uncooperative it's if it's very hard for them to sit still. You're going to try the sealant and it's not going to work so don't waste your time, you would not place a sealant if there's a cavity. Let's do. Let's do five questions so I think we're on question number four right question number four, what do you clean the tooth with before you start the sealant procedure. What do you clean the tooth with pause the video if you need to think about it, you need to clean the tooth with pumice, not polishing paste, not toothpaste, not only water, not fluoride not anything other random it needs to be pumice pumice is a powder, you mix a little bit of water with it kind of like a paste. Done. That's what the tooth has to be cleaned with before you place the sealant because it needs to be as clean as possible with nothing extra added five fifth question. Let me think about that fifth question. Yeah, I didn't talk about this but fifth question. What types of things would you use to isolate the teeth for sealants, because you need to keep those teeth perfectly dry right no saliva nothing per sealant that you're working on. What would you use to isolate the tooth when you're doing the sealant. Pause the video if you need to think about it. Well, there's a number of things you can use a rubber dam you can use cotton rolls you can use dry angles, I would not suggest a rubber dam because it's one tooth at a time. So you'd have to put on the rubber dam then take it off put it on take it off. I love the rubber dam but that would take too much work. I would suggest cotton rolls and dry angles. I like both because you're kind of keeping things away from the cheek. And then the cotton rolls are for less saliva, and you need lots of suction it's great to have an assistant when you're doing silence. Okay guys so I hope that helped. If you have any questions about sealants click like to this video right now if you haven't yet. Thank you guys again, and I'll see you guys next Monday for another study video.