Oral hygiene is ignored when speaking of general health. A healthy mouth helps you eat and speak and healthy teeth can give you a winning smile. If you’re caring for young children, you can help them get an early start at protecting their teeth, gums, and mouth. Globally, an estimated 2 billion people suffer from caries of permanent teeth and 514 million children suffer from caries of primary teeth.
Oral disease, especially dental caries, often begins to develop during infancy. New-born babies have a cute toothless smile, even though you can’t see the baby’s teeth, they’re hiding just beneath the gums Bacteria causing dental caries may begin to grow prior to tooth eruption. Ideally, steps to prevent caries begin before birth and continue with the mother and child. You can start cleaning your baby’s mouth with a clean, soft cloth even before the first teeth come in. Baby teeth may start to appear at about 6 months of age.
A child between the ages one and three is at a budding stage when it comes to dental development. A healthy mouth, with a full complement of teeth and aesthetic is a goal that pediatric dentists seek to through various preventive and therapeutic measures. It is recommended that your toddler go and see a dentist before first birthday so as to ensure that your child’s teeth grow appropriately.
As early as 6 years old, these teeth may begin falling out. Though baby teeth are temporary, they are important as they are used for chewing food, speech, guide growth of the jaw bones, and they make room for the permanent teeth when they come in. It is essential that your child visits the dentist regularly, at least every six months, which helps in identifying any problem your child may face, at an earlier stage.
Use a toothpaste with less fluoride
A toothpaste with smaller quantities of toothpaste is safer for your toddler. So, even if they accidentally swallow some toothpaste while brushing, they will not fall ill.
Take only a small amount of toothpaste
- Use a tiny smear—the size of a grain of rice—until age 3. Watch them brush Clean the teeth at least twice a day. It’s best to clean them right after breakfast and before bedtime.
- If your child is older than 3, make sure they use a pea-sized amount of toothpaste and always spit it out rather than swallow.
Avoid leaving a bottle in their mouth
Leaving a bottle of juice or milk in their mouth for some time is not a problem, especially if it pacifies them. But, on the contrary, if left in their mouth for too long (like when they sleep) it can cause tooth decay.
Avoid candies
This is an over shared tip, but is just as effective. Avoiding candy can help your toddler have stronger teeth as the sugar in candies, if left behind, can lead to a range of dental problems like cavities and tooth decay. Try giving lesser artificial sugars and more natural sugars (maybe, replace candy with a juicy mango). Bacteria in the mouth produce acid when a person eats sugary foods. This acid eats away minerals from the tooth’s surface, making the tooth weaker and increasing the chance of developing cavities.
Avoid sharing your utensils
There may be cavity-causing bacteria in your mouth that can be transferred to your child. This can happen if your saliva enters your child’s mouth. To avoid this, try not to share any utensils (spoons or forks) that have been in your mouth.
Besides that, do not share your toothbrush or put your mouth on any of their sippers or bottles.
Set habits early
Ensuring your child brushes their teeth twice a day, since the very beginning can help to maintain their dental health in the long run. Besides that, they should also start flossing once their teeth grow together and start touching.
Avoid creating apprehensions
If you feel uneasy going to the dentist, try not to project this onto your child. Building a positive attitude towards dentists from a young age is necessary to promote good dental habits that will remain for a long period of time.
There are a number of problems that affect the oral health of children, including tooth decay, thumb sucking, tongue thrusting, lip sucking, and early tooth loss. Even though baby teeth are eventually replaced with permanent teeth, keeping baby teeth healthy is important to a child’s overall health and well-being.
Baby teeth are space savers
If left untreated, decayed teeth can cause pain and make it difficult to chew and eat. Also, baby teeth serve as “space savers” for adult teeth. If baby teeth are damaged or destroyed, they can’t help guide permanent teeth into their proper position, possibly resulting in crowded or crooked permanent teeth. Badly decayed baby teeth could lead to an abscessed tooth, with the possibility of infection spreading elsewhere in the body.
If your child loses a tooth prematurely, your dentist may recommend a space maintainer. A space maintainer is a plastic or metal device that holds open the space left by the missing tooth. Your dentist will remove it once the permanent teeth begin to erupt.
New ingredients in the recipe of caries management
The good news is that cavities are preventable. Fluoride varnish can prevent about one-third (33%) of cavities in the primary (baby) teeth. Children living in communities with fluoridated tap water have fewer cavities than children whose water is not fluoridated. Similarly, children who brush daily with fluoride toothpaste will have fewer cavities. Dental sealants can also prevent cavities for many years. Applying dental sealants to the chewing surfaces of the back teeth prevent 80% of cavities.
Oral Habits- A stitch in time saves nine
Oral habits in children are completely normal forms of self-soothing and exploration of the environment under age two. Habits are increasing day by day due to stress and poor attention from parents. Child needs proper care for good behaviour development. Habits once developed are hard to break because repeated action becomes imprints in our neural pathway. Abnormal oral habit can cause great destruction to both dental and facial structure; it also affects the general health. Hence, pedodontist plays an important role in habit modification.
Pedodontists not only repairs tooth and dentofacial structure but also identify unnoticed habits (due to parent’s unawareness) and helps in the prevention and treatment of the underlying cause. To replace bad habits with a good habit integrated approach is required between parents and patients, behaviour modification technique, physical exercise, habit breaking appliance and orthodontic treatment are required. But most importantly parents should be educated about harmful oral habits their etiology and side effects to stop habit in early age for healthy dentition and good health.
However, daily oral habits e.g Clenching of teeth during night, thumb sucking habits, pacifier-sucking habits, fingernail biting, lip biting habits, mouth-breathing, and tongue-thrusting tend to cause irregularities in teeth alignment. The child should be given emotional support and encouragement. Behavioural modification techniques, positive reinforcements, and regular follow-ups are important aspects of treatment with a multidisciplinary approach.
Prevention is better than cure
By age 14, one-third of all children will have experienced a dental trauma, with 11,000 emergency department visits annually for sports-related dental injuries in children and teens. The American Dental Association (ADA) recommends the use of mouth guards in sports and exercise activities.
Dental trauma
Popping out of teeth are dental emergencies and require immediate treatment. Teeth treated within 30 minutes to 1 hour have best chances of success management. Pick up your tooth by crown, rinse gently and try reinserting tooth into socket and visit your dentist as soon as possible. You can place your tooth in milk or coconut water. Report to your dentist within one hour to be reimplanted and splinted
Thus, caregivers should visit pedodontists as they should possess knowledge regarding oral health care, provide guidance, as well as dental education to parents in order to make appropriate clinical decisions.
(The Author is H.O.D Department of Pedodontics, Govt. Dental College and Hospital Shreenbagh, Srinagar)
