Pediatric Dentistry is Discussed by Shelby Township Dentist
Hi, I’m Dr. Heather Pranzarone Stratton HPS Dental Care. Located in Macomb County, Shelby Township, Michigan. I want to talk today about pediatric dentistry. February is National Children’s Dental Health month, and so I’m to talk a little bit about pediatric dentistry, and I know we have a lot of parents who bring their children here, and have a lot of questions for us about different aspects of pediatric dentistry. If you have any specific questions about your children that I don’t answer, please give our office a call at 248-652-0024 and hopefully, we’ll get all your questions answered.
The Surgeon General came out and said that cavities in children are 5 times more common than chronic asthma. So just with that statistic alone, we know that cavities in children are very prevalent. It’s a chronic infection is what it is, or cavities. Cavities are caused by bacteria. And that bacteria, the waste product of the bacteria causes holes in our teeth, and that’s what causes a cavity. So, when we have bacteria in our teeth, we know we need to get that bacteria out, or else it can spread to other teeth. A lot of people don’t realize, but because it is an infection, because decay is an infection, it can be transferred to other members of the family, it can be transferred to other teeth since it’s bacteria. So we want to make sure that everybody in the family’s teeth are healthy and strong. And so, when we do get a cavity, we want to make sure that we get that decay out of the tooth.
A lot of our parents ask us, well does that mean that if they have a baby tooth, do we have to get the tooth filled? It’s a good question. There’s a lot of reasons to get teeth filled one of which is, if you get the teeth filled, and it’s important to keep those baby teeth, one important reason is, you know, when kids are walking around, especially when they get a little bit older into, like, elementary school and they might have some dark spots or discoloration on their teeth, the kids maybe feel a little self-conscious. So if their teeth look good then they’re proud of their teeth. It helps to improve self-confidence and self-esteem. One of the other things we know about why it’s important to keep our baby teeth healthy is it maintains the space for the permanent teeth to come out. So if you lose a baby tooth. Like, if a baby tooth has to be pulled out because it has a cavity or it’s abscessed or something like this, at a very young age, it’s going to decay the permanent tooth from coming out, to the point that, often times, the other teeth start shifting, and now in order for the permanent tooth to come out, we have to put something in there called a space maintainer.
If we don’t put the space maintainer in there, the teeth, when they get crowded, you have to go see the orthodontist, and potentially spend a significant amount of money on orthodontics where maybe you didn’t have to do that. So that’s another reason why it’s important to keep those baby teeth healthy. You know if the children have decay in their teeth or any sort of problems like that, it’s another reason why we want to make sure that they can’t concentrate on school if they have dental pain. So it’s a way to help the children to focus in school. It’s also a huge reason why a lot of children miss school every year is because of dental related pain. So those are all important reasons. Another important reason is, depending on the source of the infection. And I’m sure a lot of you have heard about in the past, children who have had decay in their teeth have turned into abscesses that it can cause death. Those abscesses, being as close to the brain as they are, and as close to our airway as they are, if we start getting a lot of swelling, the bacteria can potentially go into our brain or potentially close off our airway to the point that, now we’ve got a real serious problem.
And so we want to make sure that we try to prevent that at all costs. There are a lot of good reasons to keep our baby teeth healthy. A lot of people will ask. When’s the first time we should bring our children into the dentist? Another great question. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests between 7 and 10 months of age, is a good time to bring your children in for the first time. My baby’s not going to sit there, and let you clean their teeth. What we usually do at this office is, we recommend. If the parents are already patients at the office; when they come in for their teeth cleaning, bring the baby in with you. They can sit in their car seat, or sit on your lap while you’re getting your teeth clean. They can get familiar with the surroundings, and can kind of see what it looks like. If we get a chance to peek in their mouth, that’s great. But we like to start at a young age, just having them come in, see the surroundings, get familiar with us, get familiar with our faces, and then, as they get a little older, we try to do a little bit more each time, until usually around the age of 2, 2 and a half, we can usually start cleaning their teeth a little bit.
Pediatric Dentistry is Discussed by Shelby Township Dentist
We always want to make it as least traumatic on the kids as possible. If they don’t want to open their mouths, we’re not going to force them to. We’ll try again in a couple months or in 6 months depending on what their age is. We just kind of go slowly until we can look in their mouths, and they’re happy. They can get a prize. They can watch TV in their rooms and they are usually very, very comfortable here. The kids always love coming and they, they get prizes. So that makes everybody happy so if you have any other questions about Pediatric Dentistry or dentistry for your children, give us a call (248)652-0024.
