Dental Sealants

Overview

Dental sealants are thin coatings painted on the chewing surfaces of the back teeth (molars) that can prevent cavities for many years.
Dental sealants prevent 80% of cavities over 2 years in the back teeth, where 9 in 10 cavities occur.¹
However, this effective intervention remains underused; less than half of children and adolescents have dental sealants.²
4 in 10 children (42%) aged 6 to 11 years have dental sealants on permanent teeth.²
Among adolescents aged 12 to 19, 48% have dental sealants on permanent teeth.²
From 1999–2004 to 2011–2016, sealant use increased by about 75% among low-income children aged 6–11 years, reaching 39% in 2011–2016, compared to 45% among higher-income children.²
School-age children (ages 6–11) without sealants have almost 3 times as many cavities in the first molars as children who do have sealants.^{3, 4}
School sealant programs are an effective way to provide millions of children with sealants to prevent cavities.¹
Applying sealants in schools for about 7 million low-income children who don’t have them could save up to $300 million in dental treatment costs.⁴

Community Preventive Services Task Force. Preventing Dental Caries: School-based Dental Sealant Delivery Programs. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, Community Preventive Services Task Force; 2016. https://www.thecommunityguide.org/sites/default/files/assets/Oral-Health-Caries-School-based-Sealants_0.pdf pdf icon[PDF-579KB]external icon.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oral Health Surveillance Report: Trends in Dental Caries and Sealants, Tooth Retention, and Edentulism, United States, 1999–2004 to 2011–2016. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Dept of Health and Human Services; 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/publications/OHSR-2019-index.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vital signs: dental sealant use and untreated tooth decay among US school-aged children. MMWR. 2016;65(41):1141-1145.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dental Sealants Prevent Cavities—Vital Signs website. https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/pdf/2016-10-vitalsigns.pdf pdf icon[PDF-2.36MB].

Page last reviewed: November 8, 2020