Your Child's Dental Health Guide
Why does my child need regular dental visits?
Your dentist and other members of the dental health care team play important roles in helping your child maintain good oral health. Maintaining regular dental visits will ensure that any dental problems are diagnosed and treated early, when damage is less and restorations are smaller.
The dentist will:
- Assess the growth of the child's teeth and jaws
- Monitor the eruption and shedding of the teeth
- When necessary, take x-rays to see how the teeth and facial bones are developing and find any hidden decay
- May advise you on ways to prevent malocclusion
- Provide you and your child with information on proper home dental care.
When should I first take my child to see the dentist?
Ideally, your child's first dental visit should be by their second birthday. If you take your child to the dentist at an early age, your dentist can help you prevent any problems. Your dentist will check for decay and other problems, teach you how to clean your child's teeth daily and identify your child's fluoride needs. By starting dental visits early, you will help your child build a lifetime of good dental habits.
Do I need to clean my baby's mouth if there are no teeth yet?
Yes! Begin cleaning the baby's mouth during the first few days after birth. After every feeding, wipe the baby's gums with a damp washcloth or gauze pad to remove plaque. This establishes at an early age the importance of oral hygiene and the feel of having clean teeth and gums.
Can babies get cavities?
Yes! As soon as teeth appear in the mouth, decay can occur. One serious form of decay among young children is baby bottle tooth decay.
- This condition occurs when an infant is allowed to nurse continuously from a bottle of milk, formula, sugar water or fruit juice during naps or at night.
- If these liquids pool around the child's teeth during sleep, serious decay can result.
- If you need to give your baby a bottle as a comforter at bedtime, make sure it contains only water.
- Never dip a pacifier into sugar or honey.
- Children should be weaned from the bottle at 12-14 months of age.
Is teething painful?
Yes! When babies are teething (usually between four months and 2 ½ years), they often have sore and tender gums.
This pain can be soothed by:
- Gently rubbing the baby's gums with a clean finger, a small cool spoon or a wet gauze.
- Allowing the baby to chew on a clean teething ring
When should thumbsucking stop?
- Children should have ceased thumbsucking by the time the permament front teeth are ready to erupt (usually children stop between the ages of two and four years).
- Sucking often gradually lessens during this period as children spend more of their waking hours exploring their surroundings. Peer pressure also causes many school-aged children to stop as thumbsucking is viewed negatively by classmates.
- Intense, prolonged thumb or finder sucking can have adverse effects on the teeth and the jaws. It may cause the upper front teeth to tip forward, and if the habit is bad enough, cause the upper jaw to move forward.
- Stopping the habit in time is important to prevent a potentially serious overbite.
How do cavities form?
- Cavities are caused by acid attack on a susceptible tooth.
- The acids are formed due to the interaction of plaque (bacteria) and fermentable carbohydrates (sugar, for example).
- The decay process can be represented by the following formula:
Bacteria + Sugar = Acid + Tooth = Cavity!
Why does my child need regular toothbrushing and flossing?
- Toothbrushing and flossing are essential for prevention of tooth decay and periodontal diseases because they remove harmful plaque.
- Children should use toothbrushes that are specifically designed for them. They should have small, soft, end-rounded or polished bristles because such toothbrushes cause minimal injury to gum tissue. Worn out, bent or frayed bristles will not do the job of cleaning plaque.
- Small pea-sized fluoridated toothpaste (CDA approved) is recommended as soon as a child's first tooth erupts.
- Children need flossing too! Flossing removes plaque from spaces that a toothbrush overlooks.
- Visit the following link online to watch some educational animations!
http://www.ada.org/public/games/animation/index.asp
 What are sealants?
- A dental sealant is a safe plastic-like material that is painted on the chewing surfaces of the back teeth (molars and premolars) and acts as a physical barrier to help "seal out" germs and food that cause tooth decay and destroy tooth structure.
- Sealants should be placed as soon as the permanent teeth erupt. Ask your dentist if your child can benefit from sealants.
What is the general eruption pattern of teeth?
The following diagram shows approximately when each baby tooth and permanent tooth should erupt. Many variations occur, but the usual order of appearance is as follows:
- At age 6 or 7, the first adult (or permanent) teeth come in. They are known as the "first molar", or the "6-year molar". They come in at the back of the mouth, behind the last baby (or primary) teeth. They do not replace any primary teeth.
- Also at around age 6, children start to lose their first primary teeth. The roots slowly get weak, and the tooth falls out. Children lose primary teeth until they are about 12 years old.
- It is okay for children to wiggle their primary teeth is they are loose. When a tooth comes out at the right time, there will be very little bleeding.
- When your child is 6 to 13 years old, all the permanent teeth come in, except the wisdom teeth (also known as third molars).
- Sometimes, a permanent tooth starts to grow before the primary tooth has fallen out. Your dentist may want to pull the primary tooth out. This will help to make sure there is space for the new permanent tooth to come in.
Why does my child need fluoride?
We all know that fluoride reduces dental decay. When topical fluorides are applied directly to the teeth, they make enamel harder and more resistant to decay.
Examples of topical fluorides include:
- Fluoride toothpaste (reduces decay by at least 25%)
- Topical gels applied at the dental office (reduces decay by 40%)
- Fluoride mouthrinses (reduces decay by about 35%)
What do I do when my child's injury causes a tooth to be knocked out?
- If your child gets injured and knocks out one of his teeth, immediately replace the tooth in the socket at the site of the injury.
- Make sure you or your child hold the tooth in place until you reach the dentist. This is important in achieving a successful replantation by providing the tooth its natural environment.
- If you cannot replace the tooth in the socket, the tooth should be wrapped in a wet cloth or placed in a glass of milk or water and take the child to the dentist right away.
- Remember that a successful replantation is best achieved within 30 minutes after the injury.
What is a healthy diet?
A healthy diet is a balanced diet that naturally supplies all the nutrients your child needs to grow. A balanced diet includes the following major food groups every day: fruits and vegetable; breads and cereals; milk and dairy products; meat, fish and eggs.
How does my child's diet affect his/her dental health?
Your child must have a balanced diet for his teeth to develop properly. He needs a balanced diet for healthy gum tissue around the teeth. Equally important, a diet high in certain kinds of carbohydrates such as sugar and starches may place your child at extra risk of tooth decay.
What are some smart ways to give healthy snacks?
- Limit the number of times a day your child eats or DRINKS sugars. If your child sips juice or pop while playing, he or she will have sugars in the mouth over and over again. Water is the best drink to have between meals.
- Do not give your child sugar-rich foods that stay in the mouth for a long time like gum with sugar in it, suckers (or lollipops) and other hard candy. Stay away from soft, sticky sweets that get stuck in the mouth such as toffee, raisins and rolled-up fruit snacks.
- Keep good snacks handy, where your child can get them. Have carrot sticks or cheese cubes on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Children like small things like small boxes of cereal, small fruits and vegetables and small packs of nuts or seeds. As long as they are safe for your child, keep them in a low cupboard.
- To keep your child from asking for sweets, do NOT buy them. If they are not in the house, you can't give them out. If you do serve sweets, limit them to meals. When your child is eating a meal, there is more saliva in the mouth. This helps to wash away the sugars.
- When buying snacks, these are sugars you can look for on labels: corn sweeteners, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, glucose, honey, maple syrup, molasses and sucrose.
- Also, check to see if liquid medicines (such as cough syrup) have sugars. Ask your doctor or pharmacist to give you medicines that are sugar-free.
Does a balanced diet assure that my child is getting enough fluoride?
No! A balanced diet does not guarantee the proper amount of fluoride for the development and maintenance of your child's teeth. If your child is prone to developing cavities he or she may need a fluoride supplement during years of tooth development. Your dentist can help assess how much supplemental fluoride your child needs, based upon the amount of fluoride in your drinking water and your child's age and weight.
How can I help my child familiarize him/herself with the dental environment?
- Have your child play some educational web games which are found on:
http://www.ada.org/public/games/games.asp
- Have your child read some interactive stories online!
http://www.ada.org/public/games/story.asp
- Take a look at this website for some fun, educational activites:
http://www.healthyteeth.org
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