Helping Kids Enjoy Good Oral Health
We want to help kids maintain strong and healthy smiles, and that includes better care at home and visits to our office for preventive treatments. With these actions, the risk of tooth decay and other concerns decreases! In today’s blog, your Dallas, TX, pediatric dentist talks about improving your child’s oral health.
Seeing Us for Dental Exams
Kids need to undergo dental exams every few months, just like adults do. The initial visit is a simple knee-to-knee lap exam, a visit with no treatment in most cases. We recommend this around age one, shortly after the first primary tooth has erupted. Once kids reach age two, they should see our team every six months for a checkup and cleaning. These visits allow us to monitor the smile as it grows to help catch issues like tooth decay, gingivitis, and factors that could upset bite balance and alignment in the early stages.
These visits also help children become accustomed to seeing the dentist, so they don’t develop dental anxiety and gain a better understanding of their oral health and the importance of caring for their smiles. We can also discuss proper care at home!
Cleaning Teeth
In the same visit as the exam, we can offer another essential preventive treatment: the dental cleaning. With this procedure, we remove all plaque and tartar from the teeth with an ultrasonic scaling device and a manual tool, which brushing and flossing alone cannot do. By removing these layers of buildup, we help lower the risk of bad breath, teeth stains, cavities, and even gingivitis. The process only takes a few minutes, and we complete it by polishing the teeth. The polishing portion helps limit the ability for plaque and tartar to accumulate before your child’s next cleaning appointment. This also helps brighten the teeth too!
Preventing Cavities
Our team also offers two procedures to help lower the risk of cavities, keeping smiles strong and healthy. Following the cleaning portion of your child’s six-month visit, we can apply a special fluoride to the teeth in a varnish form. The process only takes seconds, and children need to avoid food and drink for about a half hour as the material cures. Fluoride then strengthens the outer enamel, even the weakened portions, to help prevent cavities. This is why we also recommend kids use a fluoride toothpaste when they brush. Kids three and younger should use a rice sized amount, kids over the age of three should use a pea sized amount.
We also have dental sealants! Children often have trouble reaching the rear teeth when they brush and floss. Which means that food and drink particles could remain trapped there for bacteria to consume, which creates plaque, weakens enamel and allows cavities to form. But with dental sealants, we will coat these rear teeth with a special acrylic layer. The application only takes a few seconds and again, kids just need to avoid food and drink for about a half hour as it cures fully. These sealants can stay in place for up to ten years in some cases, and prevent cavities from forming in the places kids can’t reach when they brush and floss. It will wear away naturally with time but we can reapply as needed.
Brushing and Flossing
Taking care of little smiles at home in between our six-month office visits is also essential for good oral health. For example, kids need to start their day by brushing their teeth for at least two minutes with a fluoride toothpaste. They should repeat this before going to bed too. They also need to floss before bed, which removes what a toothbrush alone cannot. You can assist them with floss picks, and as their dexterity improves, they can begin using floss tape or string like you do. Try to improve their diet too, as cutting back on sugar and starch can help limit plaque buildup and reduce the risk of cavities.
If you have any questions about our approach to children’s dentistry, or if you would like to schedule a visit for your child soon, then reach out to our team. We want to help children of all ages enjoy good oral health and obtain a smile that truly shines!
Ready to Schedule a Visit for Children’s Dentistry?
We want to help children of all ages in our community enjoy better oral health and beautiful smiles. Call the team at Pediatric Dental Care at Casa Linda in Dallas, TX, today at (214) 321-4880.
filed under: Children's Dental Services