Doesn’t look like a big deal on the tooth – or is it?

They also have their surprises. Decay travels faster in the dentine under the enamel. Fluoride has made the enamel very strong but not the dentine, the decay can get quite large before food gets caught in it or symptoms occur. The opening remains small and as such the body defences, found in saliva can’t get in. The germs say thank you! Don’t keep feeding them! Sticky sweet foods hang around in these deep grooves in the teeth. This is a genetic makeup of the person so blame mum and dad!

Not every is born equal to the shape of teeth, so some people have to be more careful with their diets than others.

These cavities become obvious when the tooth is quite hollowed out and collapses. It’s a mess!

Even on X-rays it not obvious there is decay under the small opening of the enamel. The X-ray detect a loss of tooth material but not a change in tooth structure. The small opening prevents the loss of material and on an Xray it may look like there is no problem.

We still have to use our hands and a sense of feel; “old school”!

Prevention is key to this and we can add material to the groove to seal out bacteria and make it self-cleaning.

This is called a fissure seal.