:) Children
Great Dental Care is vital from a very young age, but changes as your child develops.
Here’s our step by step guide to good dental health for your child.
Teething
Some babies teeth appear as early as four months. Typically, the first two teeth are the centre two teeth in the lower jaw, followed by the two centre teeth in the upper jaw. Four more teeth then emerge before your baby cuts her first four back teeth. There are 20 milk teeth and these will appear between four months and two and-a-half-years and will last until they are seven.
Symptoms can include:- drooling, chewing, rosy cheeks, changes in behaviour, loose bowels and sometimes a high temperature. If you are ever worried, please seek medical advice.
Taking care of baby teeth
Never allow your baby to fall asleep with a bottle as this can cause baby bottle mouth which is caused by the residue of milk or juice left in the mouth whilst asleep.
Avoid any juice in a bottle and encourage the drinking of juice and milk out of a cup as soon as possible.
Any juice, especially pure fruit juice needs to be diluted 50/50.
Encourage your baby/toddler to drink water as his/her main drink.
Start your brushing routine as early as six months. As a responsible parent you are responsible for brushing your child’s teeth at least up until the age of seven. It is important to give as much help as possible to learn this new skill. We hold special sessions here in the practice with our dental therapist, Lisa, who will ensure you have all the techniques to help with this process.
Why are the baby teeth so important?
Those tiny pearls that bring so much pain before they arrive and so much excitement when they break through the gums are destined for extinction.
So why should we look after them when they are going to fall out in any case?
The baby teeth are the template on which the permanent teeth will be based. If a child needs to have a badly decayed tooth removed, it can shift the teeth and affect how the permanent teeth appear.
Decay or loss of the teeth can deform the mouth permanently. If a baby tooth decays, the infection can spread to the roots and affect the way enamel is being produced in the permanent teeth that are still in the bone.
Thumb sucking
Thumb sucking should be discouraged from as early as birth. The longer you allow your little one to suck his/her thumb, the more difficult it will become to break the habit.
Initially thumb sucking pushes the upper teeth forward and the lower teeth backwards. Thereby creating a gap between the upper and lower set of teeth called an open bite.
A child that persist sucking his/her thumb could also damage and deform the alveolar bone (the bone that supports front teeth). Instead of normal rounded arch in the front, they will end up with a deformed arch affecting profile, appearance and speech.
Other reasons why strong and healthy milk teeth are important
A child needs healthy teeth for the normal development of speech. A child with badly decayed teeth or gaps where teeth should be, will more often than not lack self confidence to smile or even to speak.
The four most important contributors to good oral healthcare are as follows:
- Diet
- Correct brushing of teeth
- Fluoride
- Dental visits
Diet
When plaque reacts with sugar (sucrose) in the mouth it produces harmful acids that are the main cause of tooth decay. The higher the sugar content of your child’s diet, and more importantly, the more often sugar is in the mouth, the greater the opportunity for the bacteria to produce the acids that cause tooth decay.
The timing of “sugar attacks” is crucial – too frequent and the enamel cannot re-mineralise.
Proper nutrition
An adequate intake of calcium, phosphorus and Fluoride. Particularly Vit C which help maintain healthy gums. Do not give babies or toddlers any iron supplements as this could lead to a grey discolouration.
Toothbrushing
First you need the correct tools. We recommend an electric toothbrush here at the Practice. It is the most effective and has been proven clinically over the last 15 years. The small oscillating head removes more plaque than ordinary toothbrushes. You need to use a baby toothpaste which has a reduced amount of fluoride. A child that swallows too much toothpaste, could develop white stains on their teeth.
We sell electric toothbrushes and children’s toothpaste at Reception, please ask one of the hygienist team to recommend the most suitable products for your child.
Always use a pea sized amount of toothpaste
Cup the tooth with the brushhead and switch on the power brush
Gently guide the brush from one tooth/gum surface to the next
Spend a few seconds on each tooth/gum area
Brush for a full two minutes
Make sure the child spits and rinses out excess toothpaste
Little children have very deep fissures and extra care should be taken to ensure you clean properly and get into those deep grooves. 90% of all tooth decay in young children happens in the back molars.
Fluoride
Discuss with your dentist, but never give any fluoride supplements unless it has been prescribed by your dentist. Too much fluoride can cause white staining on permanent teeth that cannot be removed. So keep adult toothpaste out of reach!
Fissure Sealants
The first adult teeth usually come through when from the age of six, so the best time to have a sealant is as soon after this as possible. A fissure sealant is a white, plastic coating that’s painted onto the chewing surfaces of back teeth to provide protection from decay on these surfaces. Delton Plus releases small amounts of fluoride to discourage decay further. It’s quick to apply, hardens immediately and is totally painless. Please ask our team for more details of this treatment.
Visiting us here at the Practice
We recommend that your child visits us here at the Practice every 6 months. Visiting the dentist is lots of fun here, and at the end of the visit we offer you special duck food for feeding the ducks and other wild birds that swim in the canal opposite the Practice.
We provide drawing materials, books and activity games for our younger patients in the unlikely event they have to wait more than a couple of minutes.
Finally
As the mum or dad you are responsible for brushing and flossing your child’s teeth up until the age of six or seven. It is two serious minutes twice a day and it is well worth persisting to ensure that your child has a great dental health routine, which is established for the rest of their life.
A great acid neutralizer is any form of CHEESE! So remember, always pack a bit of cheese in their lunch box and always encourage your kids to eat cheese! This neutralizes harmful acids.
Some toothy jokes!
Q: What did the dentist say to his wife when she baked a cake?
A: Can I do the filling?
Q: What do dentists call an astronauts cavity?
A: A black hole
Q: What did the tooth say to the dentist who was leaving for the day?
A: Fill me in when you get back
Patient: I have yellow teeth, what can I do?
Dentist: May I suggest a brown tie?
Q: What time do you go to the dentist?
A: Tooth- hurty
A judge walks into a dentist and asks for them to extract the tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth!
