Thursday, February 4, 2016

Children's Dental Health Month




Among other things, February is Children’s Dental Health Month and with my son just celebrating his first birthday this month (that first year goes by so fast) it seems like a good time to write about setting up your child for a lifetime of smiles.

                Parents of little ones are inundated with facts on development.  There are typical dates we tend to see our kids reach certain milestones such as sitting on their own and crawling.  Cutting their first tooth is one of these less exciting times.  Typically, we see the lower front two teeth breaking through the gums between 6-8 months, but this is a range, there isn’t necessarily anything to be worried about if your child gets his first tooth early or late. 


                As guardian of your child’s mouth, your job should begin before you reach this milestone.  Good habits start early.  After feeding, it is never too early to get started on your oral hygiene regimen.  A moist cloth quickly run over and massaging your baby’s gums not only helps clean them but it teaches the more important routine of you working in their mouth before it’s a painful area that they do not want you to touch.   One great product out there is xylitol wipes that helps with this.  I know it’s tough, but it is a little work to save you a lot of headaches later.  

                 Once they get that first tooth though, it is important to get a toothbrush on it. Luckily, there aren’t too many teeth to brush at this point so this is a quick thing to do.  Usually, I let my son watch me brushing my teeth with my electric toothbrush and then I let play around on his own.  After playing two minutes of keep away with my brush he is quick to let me get the brush in his mouth.  It doesn’t have anything other than water on it at this point.
                The ideal time to touch base with a dentist for your child is 6 months after that first tooth has come in.  This first visit isn’t necessarily a cleaning, but a great chance to talk about their oral development and help with parental education.  We are often talking about the need to break the child of their pacifier habit around this age, adding a little toothpaste into the brushing routine (just enough for a little flavor at this point, almost always less than you’d think), and setting up good mealtime habits.  In my office the rule is to make sure the visit is a happy one.  Developing a good relationship with a dentist is important.  We start off on the right foot so we can build to where we need to be.  We typically like to see your child as far away from his most recent pediatrician visit as possible.  It can be a little tough on your child to be in a dental office immediately following an appointment where they just had routine vaccines.  They are skeptical of those in white gloves!


                Until your little one is 5 or 6, they will need help with brushing.  Help will flossing will need to continue until 10.  At this age, you child should have the dexterity to brush by themselves, but they do not always have the compliance they should have.  The earlier it becomes a routine the easier to it will be to transitioning them to being able to do it themselves.  Make sure they are spending a full two minutes, brushing all surfaces of the teeth front and back. 

                Both general dentists and pediatric dentists are fantastic at fixing decay.  Preventing decay from happening starts at home.  Frequent checkups can help prevent big surprises.  If we can find a cavity that is small enough, we can sometimes reverse the process and prevent a filling in the first place.  If the decay goes unchecked we frequently have to deal with early tooth loss. 

                I often tell patients if we can get them to adulthood with no cavities, we can usually keep them that way most of their lives.  The “big ticket” items we usually dread as adults such as crowns, root canals and extractions almost always found on teeth that needing a filling as a kid.  So many complex issues that we work to solve with braces are issues that started because of early tooth loss.  Our baby teeth are the foundation for our oral health the rest of our lives.