At the start of a new year approaches, it’s time to start thinking about your child’s first dental appointment or your child’s first dental appointment of 2018. Pediatric dental appointments help ensure that your child’s teeth, gums, and jaw are growing correctly and that your child is practicing good oral hygiene in order to develop a healthy mouth.
Reasons for Pediatric Dental Cleanings in Maitland and St. Cloud
With 2018 on the horizon, it’s time to start thinking about the oral health of your children. Scheduling frequent pediatric dental cleanings in Maitland and St. Cloud can help detect oral problems, like tooth decay and cavities before they cause tooth loss.
Learn Correct Oral Hygiene for Your Child
The first step to helping your child take care of his or her teeth and gums is to learn about the correct pediatric oral hygiene products and procedures for cleaning your infant’s and child’s teeth from out experienced and caring pediatric dentist.
Help Prevent Overbites
If you are having trouble weaning your child from thumb sucking or pacifier usage, we can provide you with simple tips and tricks to help with the process during your appointment in order to prevent the development of overbites.
Detect Oral Health Problems Early
Regular pediatric dental cleanings also help identify common childhood oral health problems, like early tooth decay and misaligned bites. When these problems are discovered early, our dentist can work with your to create long and short-term oral health treatment plans to help correct the problems before they affect your child’s long-term oral health.
Common Childhood Dental Problems
The most common dental problem in children is tooth decay. This condition occurs due to lack of good oral hygiene and eating too many sweets or sugary drinks, like fruit juice. It is estimated that more than 40 percent of children have signs of tooth decay and cavities by the time they reach kindergarten, according to the National Children’s Oral Health Foundation (NCOHF).
- Tooth Decay and Cavities – When your child has tooth decay and cavities, it can lead to pain, which could cause your child to miss his or her classes at school and even lose baby teeth.
- Thumb Sucking and Tongue Thrusting – Thumb sucking past the age of five and tongue thrusting can put the top teeth forward, creating an overbite. It may also lead to the need for braces and other orthodontic devices when your child gets older.
- Baby Bottle Tooth Decay in Infants and Toddlers – Baby bottle tooth decay occurs when your child sucks on a bottle of milk, fruit juice or breast milk continuously or while asleep. Our dentist in Maitland and St. Cloud can give you tips during your child’s first dental appointment of 2018 on how to clean your baby’s teeth and gums to prevent baby bottle tooth decay.
- Tooth Decay and Premature Tooth Loss – The baby teeth in your child’s mouth, while not permanent, help guide your child’s adult teeth so that they emerge in the proper locations. When children lose their baby teeth early, it can lead to crowded, crooked and misaligned adult teeth.
Pediatric Dental Exams and Teeth Cleanings
Pediatric dental exams and teeth cleanings can help keep your child’s teeth and gums healthy. When you bring your infant or toddler into our dental office, our dentist will perform an examination and exam to look for signs or proper jaw growth and development as well as any abnormalities. Our dentist can also answer your questions about proper gum cleaning and how to prevent baby bottle tooth decay.
After the age of three, out dentist will take x-rays of your child’s mouth to make sure the jaw and teeth are growing and developing correctly and will perform a basic teeth cleaning. We can also give you tips on how to choose the best oral hygiene products for your child’s teeth and how to clean your child’s teeth and gums at home.
When your child reaches grade school, our dentist will perform yearly x-rays and teeth cleanings to help prevent cavities and oral health problems. If any abnormalities are found, our dentist can help develop short and long-term treatment approaches to correcting conditions like crooked teeth, gaps and malaligned bites.
To schedule your child’s first dental cleaning of 2018 with our Maitland, FL dentist, call us at 407-628-2286. To schedule a pediatric dental appointment in St. Cloud, call us at 407-593-8900.
