How Routine Dental Care Protects Oral Health
Our team provides pediatric dentistry for kids of all ages, helping them enjoy good oral health and avoiding painful issues like tooth decay and infected teeth. We can help prevent this from happening with preventive dentistry and if cavities or infections surface, we can treat teeth with our dental restorations. In today’s blog, your Dallas, TX, pediatric dentist talks about protecting oral health with routine dental care and safeguarding smiles from complications with our restorative treatment options!
The First Dental Exam
When should a child have their first checkup visit? Once the first baby tooth erupts, we want to see your child within six months for an initial wellness exam, in which we conduct a knee-to-knee lap exam to make sure teeth are erupting properly.
Dental Checkups
Following that initial visit, regular six-month checkup and cleaning visit should happen every six months at around age two. The dental exam involves our team closely looking at the teeth, gums, and oral structures with digital x-rays and intraoral cameras, so we can make a thorough diagnosis with comfort and ease. Our team will ensure your little one feels comfortable by carefully explaining the tools and process, and we will answer their questions too. These visits not only protect their teeth and gums, but they help reduce dental anxiety and make kids more likely to continue seeking care on their own as adults.
Cleaning Little Smiles
In the same visit as the exam, we will take time to clean the teeth. The process will help remove plaque and tartar buildup from the teeth with an ultrasonic scaling device and a manual pick. We then polish the teeth to help reduce the ability for plaque and tartar to cling to the teeth before their next visit. A cleaning helps lower the risk of bad breath, stained teeth, and tooth decay. The procedure only takes a few minutes to complete!
Preventing Tooth Decay
Our team can also help kids with procedures that reduce the risk of tooth decay. During the checkup and cleaning visit, we can apply fluoride to the teeth in a varnish form, a process that takes seconds. Kids then avoid food and drink for about a half-hour as the material fully cures. This helps strengthen the outer enamel, even weakened portions, to lower the risk of tooth decay.
We also have dental sealants. Often, kids have trouble reaching the rear teeth when they brush and floss. This means these molars are more likely to develop cavities. But with dental sealants, we apply a thin acrylic coating to the rear teeth so food and drink particles can no longer be trapped there, which reduces the risk of cavities for years to come, often as long as ten!
Treating Cavities and Infection
What if your child reports pain in a tooth and during the exam we find a cavity or possibly an infection? For a cavity, we can offer relief in one visit with a metal-free composite resin filling. The material bonds with the tooth and offers a more lifelike appearance than metal restorations. The placement process only takes one visit, and can help prevent decay from becoming a painful infection.
If a tooth is infected, we could offer a comfortable root canal alternative known as a pulpotomy. We numb the tooth and offer sedition. Next, we open the tooth and remove the infected portions of the inner tissues. We then add a medicated filling to complete the procedure. If the infection is larger, we could also cap the tooth with a stainless-steel crown or possibly a NuSmile zirconia one, which is a bit more natural in appearance.
Better Care at Home
We also talk to your kids about how to better care for smiles from home. We want to help your children avoid cavities, and taking time to brush twice a day for two minutes each day is essential. Children also need to floss every evening before they brush the second time to remove what a toothbrush alone cannot reach, the bits of food and drink particles caught between the teeth and along the gum line. If you have any questions about our approach to pediatric dentistry, or if you want to schedule a visit for your little one, then contact our team today to learn more.
PDC Kids Provides Treatment for Children of All Ages
Our team wants to help children avoid common concerns like tooth decay and dental infection. To find out more about keeping little smiles healthy and strong, call Pediatric Dental Care at Casa Linda in Dallas, TX, today at (214) 321-4880.
filed under: Children's Dental Services