Providing Restorations For Children’s Smiles

Posted May 25, 2023

Whenever your child develops a problem with one of their teeth, appropriate treatment can restore their smile and maintain its strength. From tooth decay to infections or physical injury, we offer various restorations to protect their little teeth! In today’s blog, your Dallas, TX, pediatric dentist discusses restorative solutions to help repair your child’s smile.

The Importance Of Regular Dental Visits

Beginning at their first birthday, or whenever their first tooth erupts, we recommend bringing your child in for their first dental visit. At this meeting, we will perform a simple exam to introduce ourselves to your baby and encourage their familiarity for future visits. While we do not perform any significant treatments, their initial visit allows us to see that their teeth are arriving on schedule. Then around their second birthday, we suggest placing your kid on a routine semiannual cleaning schedule. Regular pediatric exams provide the ability to detect threats to their oral health in their early stages. This means receiving more conservative treatments for problems before they cause additional damage. Additionally, we stress bringing your child in for a visit whenever they experience consistent aches or physical damage to a tooth. By seeing them early, we can repair their tooth and prevent additional complications.

Dental Fillings

Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease for children in the United States, and left untreated can lead to painful infections. But with regular examinations, we can detect cavities and place dental fillings when appropriate to restore their little smiles! To begin, we apply a local anesthetic for their comfort and then remove decaying materials from their tooth. We clean the tooth and smooth its surface to receive a composite resin that seals the outer layer. Without this seal, their tooth would remain open to reinfection, allowing bacteria to quickly rebuild. Compared to metal fillings of old, modern resin allows us to shade their filling to match their natural teeth.

Dental Crowns

Whenever a cavity becomes too severe for treatment with a filling, we could place a dental crown to restore the entire tooth above your child’s gumline This treatment is also vital for repairing injuries from physical trauma that cracks or chips the outer surface. By carefully measuring the problem tooth in relation to the rest of their mouth, we design each crown to restore the balance of a child’s bite. This helps prevent additional tooth damage brought upon by uneven wear and tear from dental misalignment. Once secure, your child’s crown should last until the baby tooth falls out.

A Pulpotomy For Infection

If your child experiences consistent pain in one of their teeth that will not go away, this could indicate a serious infection. Because tooth infections can spread to other tissues of the body when left untreated, you must bring them in for our care. For children, we offer an alternative to root canals called a pulpotomy. First, to help reduce any anxiety we can provide dental sedation to calm their mood. Opening their tooth allows us to access the infection within and properly remove it. To prevent future reinfection, we then apply a restorative filling or dental crown to complete the procedure.

Laser Dentistry

At Pediatric Dental Care at Casa Linda, we employ modern techniques to best treat oral threats that affect your child. For a variety of issues, we could use a dental laser to assist in removing decay, restoring healthy gum tissue, or treating a case of cold sores. This tool provides a level of precision and accuracy that treatments for sensitive areas of the mouth require. Laser dentistry reduces the risk of bleeding compared to procedures with traditional metal tools.  The accelerated recovery period provided by laser dentistry means getting your children back to school with less delay!

Dental Sedation

A child’s comfort is our priority when treating dental problems. Because the experiences they have at an early age inform their attitude toward dental care for the rest of their lives, a relaxed environment contributes to maintaining healthy smiles. As part of our restorative approach, we offer dental sedation to calm your kid before a procedure. We could provide nitrous oxide gas or a deeper form of sedation when appropriate. Our team includes board-certified anesthesiologists that will be on hand to monitor your child the entire time sedation is used. By taking into consideration their age, weight, and level of anxiety, we can select the proper level of sedation to help them remain comfortable while improving their oral condition.

Speak With Your Dallas, TX, Pediatric Dentist About Treatments For Your Child

If you would like to learn more about how we repair children’s smiles or to schedule an appointment for a restorative treatment, we invite you to contact your Dallas, TX pediatric dentist, Dr. Marr, by calling (214) 321-4880.