You can keep your child from getting tooth decay by starting his dental care early. Follow these steps to prevent cavities and keep his beautiful smile healthy.
Your child should see a dentist by his first birthday. Early preventive care saves you money in the long run. A CDC report shows that dental care costs are nearly 40% lower over 5 years for children who see a dentist by age 5.
Brushing is crucial from the get-go. Before your baby has teeth, you can gently brush his gums. Use water on a baby toothbrush, or clean them with a soft washcloth.
When your baby’s teeth appear, brush twice a day with an infant toothbrush and fluoridated toothpaste.
Start flossing when two of his teeth touch each other. Ask your dentist about techniques and schedules.
Brush and floss just before bedtime. After that, don’t give your child any food or drink, except water, until the next morning. CONTINUE READING BELOW
Your dentist can suggest when your child should start using mouthwash. You’ll need to wait until he knows how to spit it out.
Don’t put your infant or older child down for a nap with a bottle of juice, formula, or milk. Sugary liquids cling to his teeth, feeding bacteria that can cause tooth decay.
If you must give your child a bottle to take to bed, make sure it contains only water.
Many parents think juice is a healthy daylong choice for a drink, but it can lead to tooth decay.
Limit your child to no more than 4 ounces a day of 100% fruit juice. Give non-sugary drinks and foods at mealtimes, and use juice only as a treat.
A sippy cup can help kids move from a bottle to a glass, but don’t let him drink from it all day long. Using it too much can lead to decay on the back of the front teeth if the drinks are sugary.
There are lots of good reasons to let your child use a pacifier, but in the long term, it can affect how his teeth line up. It can also change the shape of the mouth.
Talk to your doctor if he’s still using a pacifier past age 3.
Children’s medications can be flavored and sugary. If they stick on the teeth, the chance of cavities goes up. Children on medications for chronic conditions such as asthma and heart problems often have a higher decay rate.
Antibiotics and some asthma medications can cause an overgrowth of candida (yeast), which can lead to a fungal infection called oral thrush. Signs are creamy, curd-like patches on the tongue or inside the mouth.
Talk to your dentist about how often to brush if your child is taking long-term medications. It could be as often as four times a day.
If your kid puts up a fuss when it comes time to brush, floss, and rinse, don’t let him off the hook. Make it clear he doesn’t have a choice.
Some tips to coax your reluctant child to brush on his own or get your little one to let you help:
Be patient. Kids can start brushing their teeth with help from a grownup around 2 or 3. But they may not be ready to go it alone until about age 6. And it can take until around age 10 until children perfect their flossing skills.
Don’t wait until late in the day. If your child is tired, you may not get much cooperation with brushing, flossing, and rinsing. So start before it’s too close to bedtime.
Let your child choose toothpaste. Kids 5 or older can pick their own from options you approve.
Motivate. A younger child may gladly brush for a sticker, for instance, or gold stars on a chart. Or make it a group activity. Kids might be more likely to join in if they see the grownups brushing.
We love our patients and love to help them form healthy dental life that will last them a lifetime. For more information call us today to answer all of your questions so get an appointment.
Chronic gingivitis. aggressive periodontists and generalized aggressive periodontists are types of gum disease in children.
Chronic gingivitis is common in children. It usually causes gum tissue to swell, turn red and bleed easily. Gingivitis is both preventable and treatable with a routine of brushing, flossing and professional dental care. However, left untreated, it can eventually advance to more serious forms of periodontal disease.
Aggressive periodontists can affect otherwise healthy young people. Localized aggressive periodontists are found in teenagers and young adults and mainly affects the first molars and incisors. It is characterized by the severe loss of alveolar bone, and ironically, patients generally form very little dental plaque or calculus.
Generalized aggressive periodontists may begin around puberty and involve the entire mouth. It is marked by inflammation of the gums and heavy accumulations of plaque and calculus. Eventually, it can cause the teeth to become loose.
Four basic signs will alert you to periodontal disease in your child:
Bleeding
Bleeding gums during tooth brushing, flossing or any other time
Puffiness
Swollen and bright red gums
Recession
Gums that have receded away from the teeth, sometimes exposing the roots
Early diagnosis is important for successful treatment of periodontal diseases. Therefore, children must receive a comprehensive periodontal examination as part of their routine dental visits. Be aware that if your child has an advanced form of periodontal disease, this may be an early sign of systemic disease. A general medical evaluation should be considered for children who exhibit severe periodontists, especially if it appears resistant to therapy.
The most important preventive step against periodontal disease is to establish good oral health habits with your child. There are basic preventive steps to help your child maintain good oral health:
We love our patients and love to help them form healthy dental life that will last them a lifetime. For more information call us today to answer all of your questions so get an appointment.
Why is a dentist asking you that question? There are several reasons a dentist could be the first one to notice if your child has an airway problem. Despite the distinct separation between medicine and dentistry with things like education and insurance, they are intertwined. The mouth is an important part of your body. Problems in the mouth affect the entire body, and systemic health problems affect the mouth.
There is a particularly noteworthy correlation between the mouth (teeth and jaws) and the airway. Many people are aware of the connection between sleep apnea and the mouth; most are not aware that this connection is true for both adults and children.
Pediatric sleep apnea is a condition in which a child stops breathing for any length of time during sleep. As with adults, it can be accompanied by snoring, gasping, and choking sounds. It can also be silent.
Children who stop breathing at night do not get quality sleep, which is essential for growth and development. Sleep is also integral in the healing process, so children with sleep apnea tend to be ill more often than other children.
In addition to sleep apnea, children can also suffer from other types of sleep-disordered breathing, in which breathing does not stop but is restricted enough to reduce oxygen levels and quality of sleep.
There are certain signs of pediatric sleep-disordered breathing that appear in the mouth. During your child’s dental evaluation or professional teeth cleaning, one of our hygienists may note some of these signs and ask you more about your child’s sleep patterns.
The following list includes things we, as dentists, look for as red flags for airway problems.
You, as the parent, are an important part of the diagnosis process. Detailed information about your child’s sleep habits and patterns are integral in diagnosing an airway problem. Simply sharing your observations about how your child sleeps can provide us with vital pieces of the airway puzzle.
Often a sleep test is required to determine the severity of a sleep-disordered breathing problem. This test gives precise details about oxygenation levels, sleep stages, and disturbances in sleep.
Another tool we have at Designer Smiles for evaluating the airway is our three-dimensional imaging system, the Prexion CBCT scanner. With a 3D image, we can measure the volume of the child’s airway, the size of the upper and lower jaws, and the size of soft tissue structures like tonsils and adenoids. This 3D imaging is a valuable tool in assessing anyone’s risk for airway problems.
Surgical removal of the adenoids and tonsils is the most common treatment for pediatric OSA. In uncomplicated cases, the operation results in the complete elimination of OSA symptoms in 70 to 90 percent of the time. Although generally an outpatient procedure, some children with chronic medical conditions like obesity or severe OSA or complications of OSA should be carefully monitored overnight following the surgery. because breathing abnormalities may not appear until REM sleep begins several hours in the next extended sleep cycle after the operation. Owing to post-operative swelling, full resolution of the OSA symptoms may not occur for six to eight weeks.
If adenotonsillectomy is not indicated or if the surgery does not fully resolve the symptoms, positive airway pressure therapy like that commonly prescribed for adults probably will be helpful.. (PAP therapy may also be prescribed before surgery in severe pediatric OSA cases.) PAP should be regarded as palliative rather than curative, however. Optimal pressure settings (sufficient to reduce or eliminate obstructive events without increasing arousals or central apneas) should be determined in an overnight sleep study, and efficacy studies and re-titrations should be regularly conducted: generally yearly or when there are significant weight changes in older children and adolescents.
As in adults, compliance with PAP therapy is a key factor in determining success. Adolescents pose a particular challenge. For many children, however, the dramatic improvement in the way they feel after PAP therapy is begun becomes an important motivating factor.
Oral appliances for the treatment of pediatric OSA are helpful in some cases, especially in adolescents whose facial bone growth is largely complete. One device that rapidly expands the transversal diameter of the hard palate over a six-month to one-year period has been used successfully in children as young as 6.
Weight management, including nutritional, exercise, and behavioral elements, should be strongly encouraged for all children with OSA who are overweight or obese. An adequate nightly duration of sleep is an important component of weight management.
Other treatments are directed towards additional risk factors in individual cases; i.e., allergy medications for children with seasonal/environmental allergies, asthma medications/inhalers, and treatment for gastroesophageal reflux.
We love our patients and love to help them form healthy dental life that will last them a lifetime. For more information call us today to answer all of your questions so get appointment.
Each Invisalign aligner tray has these tiny blue compliance indicators on them. As your child wears the aligners they begin to fade. You and your orthodontist will easily be able to tell if your child has been wearing their aligners as they should. And no, running them under the water for a bit won’t cut it. You need to use good old fashion saliva for these to work.
In most cases, Invisalign treatment costs are similar to traditional braces. And yes, if you have orthodontic coverage then your insurance covers them. They don’t tend to care how you get your teeth fixed as long as you don’t ask them to pay over your lifetime amount.
At least compared to traditional metal braces. At least with Invisalign clear aligners, you don’t have to use one of those weirdly little floss thingy to clean between your teeth. You don’t have to buy a special toothbrush or a water park or any of that jazz. You just remove your aligners and brush and floss like a normal person.
Popcorn, Doritos, Corn Nuts, Bubble Yum. All that good stuff you couldn’t eat when you were a metal mouthed kid can easily be consumed by those using Invisalign treatment. Go ahead, be jealous.
With their proprietary technology, Invisalign clear aligners can move your teeth and fix your smile more quickly thanks to more frequent aligner changes!
Let me be the first to say it, my kid has an aggressive bite situation. At first, we were concerned that he wasn’t going to be a good candidate for Invisalign treatment because of it. However, with today’s technology and our doctor’s expertise, he was able to design a treatment plan using another device that interacts with Invisalign clear aligners to help make them a possibility for him. If you or your child want Invisalign treatment, find a doctor who is very experienced with using the product. They may be able to come up with a creative solution for you too!
We love our patients and love to help them form healthy dental life that will last them a lifetime. For more information call us today to answer all of your questions so get an appointment.