a psa about sealants

I am pretty obsessive compulsive about my dental hygiene. I brush a million times a day. I floss every day. I don't eat candy. I cried in the dentist's office when I was 16 and found out I had my first cavity in an adult tooth. When I was a kid my dentist put sealants on my molars. The idea was that if you covered up those deep cracks then you would not get cavities. I recently went to a new dentist who used some sort of laser that checks the density of your teeth to identify cavities. Six of my molars were full of cavities. Why? Apparently, if you have genetically deep groves in your teeth sealants trap bacteria in there, hiding cavities which are allowed to grow at their leisure--the very OPPOSITE of what they were supposed to be doing. My new dentist also took pictures during the two days I spent in his office. And since I have them, I will be sharing some on my blog. I tried to choose the grossest ones. And, if you have sealants, I would recommend getting those teeth checked. The dental hygienist that was helping me had 14 cavities under her sealants. It could happen to anyone.

This is how my teeth looked when he was starting. Pretty normal, right? He had already popped out a part of the sealant on the bottom tooth:


Midway through drilling (he started taking even more pictures after I asked if I could keep them):

All drilled out (he also said he wished you could tell how deep the holes were by these photos. He showed me that he was like a quarter inch down into my head):


All nice and filled:

One of my poor top teeth:


Drill step 1:


Big drilling step 2:


Better than new:


Thanks Dr. Blackwood!