Why is Child’s Dental Health Important and How to Improve it?

Children have teeth that gradually become visible after birth, but those teeth are not permanent. These sets of temporary teeth that appear after a child’s birth, also known as ‘ milk teeth’, gradually fall off and a new set of permanent teeth grows in that place. It is very important to take good care of your child’s teeth and the allover dental health because children are not very cautious about their oral hygiene and so they are at a greater risk of developing dental problems like cavities or toothache.

A Child’s Dental Health: Things That You Should Know About It

A child is born with his or her baby teeth that are the 20 initial teeth. In clinical language, those are segregated as:

• Four secondary molars
• Four first or primary molars
• Four canines or eye teeth or Cuspids
• Four incisors in the lateral portion
• Four incisors in the central portion

When your child grows up, gradually the deciduous teeth are replaced by 32 permanent teeth:

• Four third molars or wisdom teeth
• Four second molars or 12-year molars
• Four first molars or 6-year molars
• Four second bicuspids or secondary premolars
• Four first bicuspids or primary premolars
• Four canines
• Four lateral and four central incisors

It is important for parents to know that some children are easily susceptible to the risks of tooth decay, and other dental problems like cavities so parents must teach their children the importance of oral hygiene and should also show them how to take good care of their teeth and gums through regular flossing, brushing twice a day, rinsing their mouths after having a meal, scraping their tongues and many other good oral and dental care techniques. Moreover, parents must take their children to pediatric dentists so that they can get a routine dental check-up of their kids and thus have a healthy dental condition of their children.

Why Should You Take Special Care Of Your Child’s Dental Health?

As discussed earlier, a child’s dental health should be thoroughly taken care of because it is definitely different from the dental and oral orientation of the adults’. Some children, especially school kids are very much prone to tooth decay and can easily develop severe gum diseases and certain types of dental cavities. When a child’s teeth are not developed fully, they can develop a number of dental problems, for instance, dentists often say that children develop dental conditions like baby bottle tooth decay, also known as early childhood caries, or nursing caries, or nursing bottle syndrome, which develops when the teeth of a come in contact with food substances containing high amounts of added sugars or contain natural sweeteners. This includes the consumption of food substances like milk, fruit juices, chocolates, candies, and so on. This disease develops when certain types of harmful bacteria feed on the sugar-containing substances in the mouth and leads to the development of fermented acids that causes tooth decay, cavities, plaque, toothache, tooth and gum infections, and other gum problems.

The parents should certainly take care of their child’s overall dental health, because a child can easily develop tooth decay due to unhygienic dental health, for example, not rinsing their mouth properly after hiving candies or sweets. Dentists say that tooth decay and cavities in the pockets of a child’s tooth are the most potential causes behind the premature loss of the set of primary or milk teeth among children. There are some other factors too behind this tooth loss, such as injury, lack of jaw space, or some types of gum problems. According to some dentists, in cases of premature loss of teeth, there occur shifts in the nearby teeth. Later on, this results in a lack of space for the growth of a permanent tooth in that place, which becomes either tilted or a little shifted from its own space, when the child gradually grows up. Such displacement or problems in the proper spacing of teeth can cause a number of oral problems in the future and can lead to problems in chewing food properly and can cause gum problems, including temporomandibular disorders in the joints.

Such problems caused due to premature tooth loss can be possibly treated using a space- maintainer, plastic or metallic tool that manages the proper space gaps in between teeth and can keep the teeth in proper shape and spaces and this will further be removed once the teeth are properly sized and shaped. But this should be thoroughly done under the supervision of a registered dental practitioner or a professional dental expert so that the child’s dental health is not affected anyway.

Does Your Child Need Regular Dental Check-Up?

Your child should have routine visits to a pediatric dentist because a child’s dental health is very much sensitive in nature. Try scheduling routine expert check-ups for your child so that if your child faces any kind of dental problem, then it gets detected and treated soon.

Milk teeth are very much prone to bacterial infections that cause plaques, cavities and damage the primary teeth very quickly. This is not a suitable condition for a child’s teeth because, according to dentists, when bacterial infections affect a child’s teeth and gums, it progresses rapidly and travels gradually into the bones, and can eventually worsen the child’s dental infections. Moreover, when bacteria come in contact with the sugary remnants in the child’s oral space, it causes damage to the gum and teeth and also leads to the wearing away of teeth enamel. This can be a case of permanent damage to the child’s dental health and the enamel can never be recovered when the child grows up.

It is very important to discuss matters regarding your child’s oral health with your child’s pediatric dentist. Some other subjects that require the dentist’s concern are:

• Good oral hygiene techniques that are required for your child’s dental health, like brushing daily, flossing practices, healthy diet, and many others
• Oral habits like thumb sucking, tongue thrusting, and lip sucking
• Developmental issues
• Whether fluoride is required for the child’s proper dental health and the exact amount the child needs
• Proper nutrition and diet
• Child’s gradual development of teeth, and any other problem in due course.

Ways To Prevent Dental Problems Among Children

Dentists and experts always recommend some ways and practices that should be followed to avoid diseases regarding the mouth, teeth, and gums and to take care of your child’s dental health:

1.Make your child brush their teeth twice daily

According to dentists, children often have a lot of foods throughout the day that gets stuck in the corners of their teeth. So it is important for both adults and children to brush their teeth at least twice a day, this will help them to remove the germs and plaque from their teeth and keep their teeth and gums healthy.

2. Brush properly

Children are often not very careful while they brush their teeth. So there may be high chances that they may miss spots in-between their teeth and the food particles are not removed properly. So make sure that your child is removing the plaque and brushing teeth properly.

3. Children must scrape tongue:

Sometimes, the tongue of your child might get layered up by harmful bacteria and plaque. Make your child use a scraper to scrape their tongue surfaces properly.

4. Fluoride is good for a child’s teeth:

Dentists always advise using toothpaste and dental products that contain fluorides. This is because, fluoride-containing toothpaste is not only safe for your child, but will also help your child to fight against cavity-causing bacteria and will help to reduce chances of developing plaque, gum problems, and tooth decay.

5. Children should practice flossing:

Flossing is a very good practice that both adults and children should follow while brushing their teeth. Flossing helps to remove the minute food particles easily that may remain stuck in-between the corners of your teeth. If children practice flossing, they can significantly lower the chances of developing oral and dental problems like tooth decay, gum problems, plaque, cavity, and many others.

6. Rinse the child’s mouth using mouthwash

According to experts and dentists, mouthwashes are very much helpful for maintaining oral and dental health in both children and adults by lowering the amount of toxic acid in the mouth, which is solely responsible for causing tooth decay and gum problems, including plaque and cavities. Moreover, it also helps to bring out the particles that remain in the corners that are difficult to brush.