Dental Developmental Milestones In Child’s Oral Health

We all have compared different milestones in our children’s lives in their early ages such as height and weight as well as when they first started walking or spoken a word. But do we ever care about their dental developmental milestones? Most of us remember when their first tooth erupted as well the problems they have to face due to teething. But does anyone of us remember those strange moments when they started drooling or when they started brushing? As per experts, children's milestones are measured through how and when they learn, speak, move, behave, and play. In oral health, dental developmental milestones are also significant to your child's ability to eat and smile.

Teeth Eruption in Babies

The primary (baby) teeth compete for their development in your infant's jaw even before their eruption. The eruption of the first baby tooth lays the foundation for future dental checkpoints. From baby teeth to wisdom teeth, how much you take care of your child’s oral health will decide the quality of your child's smile, and eventually their overall health. Experts believe that parents should begin dental care of their children as soon as their first tooth erupts. They also suggest that parents should take their children for regular dental visits and continue in suggested intervals to observe homecare and further development. Taking proper care of teeth in infants is important as they hold space for the permanent teeth, enable speech and nutrition, and should be maintained fully until they naturally exfoliate.

Bottle-Feeding, Thumb-Sucking & Brushing Habits

Once the teeth start arriving in your baby’s mouth, protect them as they let the jaw grow. If you take your child to the dentist from the beginning, regular monitoring will help in the early diagnosis of early problems and abnormalities in your child’s growing dental structure. It's important to monitor the following:

·         Administered and supported brushing and flossing

·         Thumb- or finger-sucking effects and cessation

·         Nutrition and baby bottle habit

·         Additional fluoride treatments

Cavities are common in children which is due to lack of proper home care or an improper diet that is high in fructose sugars, mainly when your child is on a bottle feed. Your dentist or dental hygienist can guide you on what should be put in a bottle and when should you discontinue bottle use. Furthermore, they can offer education on oral hygiene and fluoride treatment to avert tooth decay. Finger- and thumb-sucking and use of pacifiers are all normal to some extent, but all these should be instantly stopped if it affects the proper development of proper dental structure including both teeth and jaw. By seeking dental care early, your baby will be on the right track for healthy oral development.

Diverse Dentition

Once your child starts losing baby teeth or primary teeth and the permanent teeth start erupting, then in such a situation, they have a "mixed dentition," which brings specific fears. Your child may begin to take part in sports, show signs of teeth crowding, and make poor selections in their diet. Again, a dental expert will distinguish what preventative or interventional treatment is essential. This may include:

·         A sport's mouth guard to safeguard the teeth and jaw.

·         Recommendation to an orthodontist.

·         Nutritional psychoanalysis to help your child make healthy dietary selections.

·         Fluoride treatment and dental sealants to avoid further decay.

Braces and Wisdom Teeth

Once your child enters his or her teen years, the connection between a healthy mouth and a healthy body starts building up. Teenagers who consider their smile important and make efforts to keep it that way or making it healthy, they should be appreciated. Teenage is ideal to get braces or go for orthodontic treatment for better dental structure and shape. The oral hygiene habits in teenagers for the prevention of gum disease and infections should be a major concern. Moreover, being a parent, you should keep a check on the eruption of wisdom teeth. Your dental expert will provide the tools required to shift to a healthy adult mouth. Apart from this, their major focus will be on the following:

·         Proper diet, nutrition, and exercise.

·         Brushing, flossing, and fluoride use.

·         Monitoring the eruption of wisdom teeth.

·         Referring to an oral surgeon if required.

The most common problem that teenager has to experience is not having enough space in the jaw so that third molars can easily erupt. If this is the case, it is important to get them removed to avoid future problems. Tooth removal can also be performed during infection, pain, and physical effect on adjacent teeth. For those who have had braces, the orthodontist will lookout these teeth by taking a special x-ray and suggesting oral surgery.

Conclusion:

All the above mentioned age-wise procedures show that developmental milestones are important in your child's life, from babyhood to young adulthood. If you understand the significance of these milestones and let your child’s dental health proceed under the guidance of a dental expert, then you will witness a smooth transition in their oral developmental health from infancy to young adult. By beginning dental care at an early age and upholding regular visits to the dentist McKinney, you will be setting your child on the right track for a lifetime of healthy smiles.

Pediatric Dentistry- The Early Oral Care Ensures the Bright Future of Your Child

Pediatric dentistry is a specialized branch of dentistry that mainly deals with examination and management of children’s oral health. It provides comprehensive therapeutic and preventive dental care to children. According to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, every parent should take their child for a dental examination to a pediatric dentistry clinic when their children are six to 12 months old. It is very important for good dental care of children. Pediatric dentistry is different from adult dentistry as it not only gets in action after the dental issues found but it also takes precautionary and preventive care of children. It is actually a special part of dentistry that ensures good dental care for infants, children, and teenagers from the beginning. 

For parents, it is very important to take care of the oral health of children from starting so that their children can avoid serious oral health problems in the future. Pediatric dentistry in McKinney educates all parents that if as a parent, you see your child having a habit of sucking thumbs every time then you should consult with a certified pediatric dentist. He/she will suggest how to break this habit of your child. It is very important to prevent your child from repeatedly sucking thumbs as this habit can lead to an eruption of unaligned and crooked teeth in your child which is not good for your child's oral health. With the consultation of a certified pediatric dentist, you can get rid of this kind of habit of your child. And ultimately you will save a huge amount of money in the end. 

Infants Dental Care

Being a parent, when your child turns six months old then you should start taking care of the oral health of your baby. See whether the eruption of teeth in your child happens properly and timely or it seems there are some problems. If you feel that teeth are delaying erupt then you should immediately visit your concerned pediatric dentist. The dentist will deeply examine the mouth of your child and suggest you either wait or get your child treated. Whatever will be better for your child, go for that. On the other hand, sometimes teeth timely erupt but not erupt in appropriate alignment. This can happen because of thumb sucking habits of a child or genetics. In this case, you should consult your doctor as soon as possible so that your child never faces oral health problems in the future. So, these two things are major in infants which you must take care of as a good parent. 

As a child grows, being a good parent, you should teach your baby to regularly brush his/her teeth and avoid eating sugar-rich and unhealthy foods. Try to teach your baby in a childish and funny way as this will help your baby quickly learn taking care of oral health. Herein you should visit pediatric dentistry in McKinney or your concerned dentist with your child after a continuous specific interval as suggested by dentists to ensure the dental health of your child.

Tooth Decay

When a child is 2 to 4 years old then he/she can have certain minor dental problems which can turn into serious dental problems if they are not treated in time. One of those dental problems is tooth decay. Children who regularly drink breast milk, tooth decay is very common with them. Being a good parent, you should take care of this aspect. You should consult with your concerned pediatric dentist, he/she will give your child the best treatment. 

Don’t ignore teeth decay in your child considering that they are milky teeth that will be eventually replaced by solid teeth. If you ignore teeth decay then it can turn into serious dental problems like bleeding gums. Pediatric dentistry in McKinney strongly suggests that tooth decay should not be ignored in children but it should be treated by taking some necessary preventive steps so that it does not become painful for children and problematic for parents in the future.

Malocclusion Teeth 

Malocclusion teeth are another major dental problem found in children between 2-4 years old. Malocclusion of teeth refers to when upper jaw teeth and lower jaw teeth do not appropriately meet together when the mouth is closed. It can happen due to problems with shapes and sizes of jaw and teeth. The most common cause of malocclusion teeth is either having too much or too little room in the jaws. 

If a child has too little room in the jaw then his/her teeth may erupt crooked and crowded while on the other hand if he/she has too much room in the jaw then teeth may erupt unaligned. Both cases lead to malocclusion of teeth. This dental illness can create so many problems such as difficulty in eating and speaking. It is also the reason for the sudden bite inside the mouth which is sometimes very painful and leads to injuries inside the mouth. So, being a parent, if you find this dental illness in your child then you should get it treated as soon as possible by visiting a certified pediatric dental clinic. Treatment is very important for this dental problem. If it is not treated in time, it can turn into a serious problem. 

Pleasant Dental Treatment For Children 

Children often hesitate and are afraid of visiting a dental clinic. It is a very common thing. Today, modern pediatric dentistry understands this aspect of children and prioritizes to make children feel safe and pleasant in the premises of the clinic and during the treatment. Pediatric dentistry in McKinney strongly emphasizes this aspect and puts every possible effort to provide a comfortable and pleasant atmosphere for children. They try to take the attention of children to other interesting things during the treatment that helps children not to think about treatment. Unlike the early dentistry when dentists used to depend on the traditional methods, tools, and technologies to give dental treatments to children, today, the technologies in pediatric dentistry have changed. The painless and pleasant dental treatment of children is possible in this era with the help of the latest technology-based tools and equipment.