What are the benefits of Fluoride Treatment?

Many of the dental procedures and treatments that people know of are restorative measures to preserve oral health. While they are important for your dental health, they are not the only crucial procedures in dentistry.

Part of dentistry is dedicated to preventive dental care, which involves monitoring and maintenance of oral health in an excellent state. Some of the treatments offered thereof include fluoride treatment that plays a big role in the sustenance of good oral health.

What Is Fluoride Treatment?

It is a treatment offered in dentistry to enrich the enamel of your teeth with fluoride. The process involves applying a fluoride varnish on the surfaces of your teeth, then allowing your teeth to absorb the product. Technically, fluoride is a natural mineral that can be found in the foods we consume every day. However, the amount of Fluoride your teeth can absorb from foods is not nearly enough to protect your teeth.

The goal of fluoride treatment is to coat the enamel of teeth with a layer of fluoride, which strengthens them and helps fight against infection in your mouth. While the treatment can benefit everyone, it is highly common for use in pediatric dental care. Children between the ages of 6 and 14 years benefit the most from the treatment.

Top Benefits of Fluoride for Teeth

When used in the right amount, fluoride can have incredible benefits to your teeth, including the following:

1. Preventing the formation of dental cavities – if you have never had a cavity in your life, this treatment may be the solution to never get them. When the fluoride is absorbed by your teeth, it creates a barrier thereof. The barrier protects teeth from bacteria that result from plaque build-up, which leads to dental cavities. However, this treatment cannot treat dental decay or dental caries. It is only used as a preventive measure to ensure that you don’t get cavities in the first place. For this reason, the dentist must thoroughly examine your teeth to ensure that the varnish used for your treatment is not applied over a tooth with a cavity.
2. Strengthening teeth – the extra layer of protection creates over your teeth adds to its strength. You may hardly have to deal with enamel thinning and deterioration when you frequently get fluoride on your teeth.
3. Better use of minerals – as your teeth absorb the fluoride element from the treatment, the teeth also get better at absorbing other crucial minerals like calcium and phosphate. When such minerals are used up by your teeth, they not only strengthen your teeth but also help keep them healthy at all times.
4. Delaying the need for other dental procedures – you may not quite appreciate the role of fluoride in your teeth until you realize that you have gone several years without requiring any restorative dental procedures. If you are keen to get this preventive treatment as often as recommended, then you may never have to deal with restorative treatments like root canals, tooth replacement with dental implants, to mention a few.
5. May help prevent gum disease – many people who suffer from gum disease do so because of plaque and tartar that builds up on teeth. Usually, plaque will settle at the base of teeth, close to the gum line. Eventually, the bacteria in the plaque will spread to other parts of your mouth, which is how you may get gum disease. As such, preventive dentistry uses fluoride to fight against bacteria causing infection. Part of the treatment even involves dental cleaning, to ensure that plaque is not locked in your teeth when the varnish is applied. Without plaque to worry about, it is safe to say that this treatment also helps reduce the risk of getting gum disease.

Should You Try It?

In dentistry, there are treatments used as predictors for good oral health, including fluoride-based procedures. Research shows that children who get these treatments early on in their life have a lower chance of getting dental cavities in the future, compared to those who did not. Besides, given that the treatment is painless and non-invasive, why wouldn’t you want to invest in improving your oral health for the long term?