HOW CAN A PEDIATRIC DENTIST HELP PREVENT EARLY DENTAL PROBLEMS?

Teeth are essential since they enhance your life in extraordinary ways. They improve your smile and allow you to speak well and eat comfortably. Many parents do not take the dental hygiene of their children very seriously. To ensure your child gets good oral health, take them to a pediatric dentist.

A pediatric dentist specializes in children’s dentistry, specifically preventative dental hygiene, restorative dentistry, and early growth and development evaluations. Although regular dentists often care for kids properly, your kid is in safe hands with a pediatric dentist. It would be best to take your child to a pediatric dentist near you irrespective of their oral issues. Sunny Smiles Kids offers pediatric dental services allowing kids to have optimal dental hygiene.

Children get their first tooth at six months and begin losing it at six. Therefore, ensuring they get excellent dental care and healthy teeth is critical. Children’s dental health is a battle that requires the dentist, the child, and the parent. A pediatric dentist helps promote healthy teeth in various ways.

Pediatric dentists receive additional training to understand child psychology, growth, and development of newborns, children, and teenagers. They also learn about children with special needs. Pediatric dentists are equipped with adequate skills to handle all problems arising in the mouth and prevent them. Furthermore, pediatric dentists talk to your child calmly, making them comfortable during the dental visit.

How to prevent early dental problems in kids

The pediatric dentist helps in various ways:

• Preventing cavities in your child

A pediatric dentist practices preventative dentistry, ensuring optimal dental health. The dentist counsels you to ensure you and your child understand the dental practices you should always follow. It involves brushing the teeth daily and flossing them regularly.

• Enlightens you about unhealthy feeding habits

Feeding habits are primarily responsible for oral hygiene. The dentist explains the unhealthy feeding habits that will cause poor mouth hygiene in your child. Unhealthy feeding habits include eating sugary foods, biting hard materials, and thumb sucking. If not controlled, these poor feeding habits result in poor dental hygiene. By adhering to healthy feeding habits, you may avoid putting your child on expensive dental treatment such as braces.

• Infant Oral Hygiene Toothbrush

The pediatric dentist also informs you about brushing the teeth of the infant or child. Unlike adults, children have special toothbrushes that are more kid-friendly. Infant toothbrushes have extra-soft bristles that take good care of their mouth. It’s also advisable to replace your kid’s toothbrush every three months. Brushing your infant’s teeth clears all the bacteria build-up, thus protecting their teeth and gums.

• What parents and caregivers can do

Besides taking the children to a pediatric dentist, the parents can prevent early dental problems in their children. Parents and caregivers are pivotal in determining their kid’s dental health trajectory.

As previously mentioned, dental hygiene for your child involves the pediatric dentist and the parent. As a parent, you must ensure all the guidelines and recommendations issued by the pediatric dentist are followed. Parents and caregivers are closer to the children and thus should enforce strict oral hygiene and practices.

Use a clean, soft, moist cloth wrapped around your finger to brush the baby’s gums for newborns under six months old. Between 6 months and one year, use a finger toothbrush with a drop of fluoride toothpaste. Past age 2, allow the child to brush their teeth with your guidance and supervision.

Parents and caregivers should also prevent their children from engaging in bad habits detrimental to their oral health. Such practices include thumb sucking and eating sugary foods. Further, they should ensure children’s feeding bottles and other accessories are clean.

Conclusion

Pediatric dentists are very crucial for any child’s development. The goal is always to raise a child free of dental problems such as tooth decay, tooth misalignment, gum disease, or early tooth loss. Early visits to the pediatric dentist will help you save so much, which would be spent rectifying dental conditions ignored earlier. Preventative dentistry is the first option when caring for your kid’s teeth. Children are delicate, and they, therefore, must be handled exquisitely.