Parent

It is very important that primary teeth are kept in place until they are lost naturally. These teeth serve a number of critical functions. Primary teeth:

• Maintain good nutrition by permitting your child to chew properly.

• Are involved in speech development.

• Help the permanent teeth by saving space for them. A healthy smile can help children feel good about the way they look to others.

Primary, or “baby,” teeth are important for many reasons. Not only do they help children speak clearly and chew naturally, they also aid in forming a path that permanent teeth can follow when they are ready to erupt.

A check-up every six months is recommended in order prevent cavities and other dental problems. However, your pediatric dentist can tell you when and how often your child should visit based on their personal oral health.

Definitely Yes

• As the decay can spread and result in premature loss of tooth or can hamper the development of permanent tooth (less calcified) and making them prone for decay when they erupt.

• If the baby teeth are lost early the adjacent teeth can move into space that are needed for permanent tooth. This can cause crowding problems, because there is insufficient space for the permanent teeth.

Services provided by a Pediatric Dentist:

1. Repair and restoration of milk teeth.

2. Space maintenance

3. Providing habit breaking appliances.

4. Placement of pit&fissure sealants and Fluoride application.

5. Painless dental treatment for children.

6. Early intervention for mal–aligned teeth.

Repair and restoration of milk teeth:

Decay in the milk teeth can be obvious on the chewing surfaces and on the sides of the teeth. It is difficult for the parents to see the decay between the back teeth as they have broad and flat contact between teeth, which can be only be detected with X-ray.

Why is it important to detect decay early?

• Early signs of decay can be delt easily before complication set in.
• The smaller the filling the better the chance for the tooth to stay healthy.

• Not necessarily, even when the decay has spread deeply enough into the tooth to expose the pulp chamber, the tooth still can be saved.

• This can be done with the root canal treatment of the milk teeth followed by the placement of a crown.

• The tooth can be filed with tooth colored filling materials if small amount of tooth has been lost through decay

• Ready made tooth colored replacement crowns can be fitted to the front teeth that are very badly decayed, which can bring the smile on the child’s face.

• The less steel cap or replacement crown is the treatment of choice for badly broken down back teeth, which will prevent further breakdown of tooth and can be fitted in single appointment. 

Space Maintenance:

• Well milk teeth usually stay in place until pushed out by a permanent tooth that takes its place.
• Unfortunately some children loose their milk teeth too early, it may be knocked out accidentally or be removed due to severe decay.

If the child looses baby teeth too early, the remaining teeth may tilt, drift or move up and down to fill the gap, when this happens they fill the space intended for the permanent teeth. It can cause crowding of permanent tooth that may require extensive orthodontic treatment in future. 

These are the appliances made of plastic or metal to maintain space intended for the permanent tooth. Which encourages the normal development teeth, jaws and muscles.

Habit breaking appliance:  Children suffer from malaligned or proclined teeth because of different deleterious habits like figure sucking, tongue thrusting and mouth breathing. A trained Pediatric Dentsit can study the situation and advice the different treatment modalities for habits.

Prevention of tooth decay:

Tooth decay is most wide spread dental disease among children, but also the most preventable. This can be done by use of

• Using pit and fissure sealants.
• Topical fluorides.

Pit and fissures sealants: 

Since the back teeth have the depressions and grooves on their chewing surfaces, which tend to trap food, they are difficult or impossible to clean and eventually develop decay. Sealants are the materials which fill in the grooves and prevent decay, thus dramatically reducing the risk of decay in children. 

A tooth should be sealed soon after its eruption because a newly erupted tooth is not yet fully hardened ( calcified) and is susceptible to decay, the sooner it can be protected by sealant the better. 

Newly erupted permanent molars at the age of 6-7 years are usually the teeth to be sealed because as much as 90%of all dental caries in school children occur in pit and fissures, however the milk teeth can also be sealed if the child is more susceptible for tooth decay. 

Topical Fluorides:

Different types of topical fluoride treatments are available. A trained Pediatric dentist can analyze the dental caries risk and advice suitable fluoride treatment for your child.

Painless Dental Treatment: 

Most of the dental treatment are painless if decay is taken care at an early stage, however for procedures like pulp therapy and extraction local anaesthetic agenst can be used. 

A child’s oral health suffers if extreme fear of dentist prevents dental treatment, in such cases conscious sedation may be an option.

General anaesthesia is used only as a last option when a dentist is prevented from treating child due to severe anxiety or handicapping condition. General anaesthesia can be used. This allows all the dental treatment to be completed in a single session. General anaesthesia should be administered by an anesthetists in a hospital with necessary facilities.

“Your Baby’s Smile”

Your baby can grow up cavity free.