With the first appearance of teeth, it is worth showing your child to the dentist. The first visit to the dentist will help you understand how well your baby’s teeth are developing.
Probably all parents are concerned about the question of when their child should be seen by a dentist. Pediatric dentistry has a number of recommendations as to when the initial examination of the child by the dentist should take place, how to monitor the health of baby teeth, when there is a need for pediatric dentures. It is worth taking a closer look at each of these rules.
Initial Examination of a Newborn at the Dentist
The initial oral examination of a newborn child occurs in the maternity home. If the child has not been examined, you must visit the dentist during the initial examination of the child by all doctors (at the time of registration) in the first month of life. The dentist examines the little patient to find out whether his palate and mucous membranes are formed correctly and whether the frenulum of the tongue is shortened. If the latter has defects in its formation, it is necessary to dissect it, as the baby is difficult to suck mother’s milk. In the future, a shortened frenulum may cause the child to gain weight.
Further Visits to the Dentist
Subsequently, the need to visit the dentist occurs with the eruption of the first baby teeth. At this stage of the infant’s life, parents should be constantly on the alert for when the baby’s teeth start to emerge. The appearance of baby teeth gives the little child a lot of discomfort and pain, often accompanied by an increase in body temperature. The dentist will then examine the child and prescribe pain relievers and antipyretics. The doctor may also prescribe special toys for children: a tooth ring filled with water and relief toys. They will help your child to relieve the itching in the mouth, and the water in the ring will cool and relieve the pain.
Cavities are no less serious reasons to show your child to the dentist. Baby teeth affected by decay can have a negative impact on the health of newly grown teeth, as well as on the child’s immune and digestive systems.
During a visit to the dentist when the first baby teeth appear, the young patient’s dental enamel is evaluated and recommendations for oral care are made. However, sometimes during this period it is necessary to undergo a more thorough examination by the dentist – when the baby’s milk teeth fall out too early. It would seem that there is nothing too terrible about it. But for a child, premature loss of baby teeth can have the most unpleasant consequences:
- The tissues in place of the tooth that has fallen out may not develop properly, leading to difficulty in erupting new teeth;
- The load on the remaining baby teeth increases significantly, which can lead to their destruction and significant pain;
- New teeth may grow incorrectly, too crowded or in the wrong trajectory, leading to significant distortion and bite problems later on;
- bite problems and the curvature of the newly grown teeth may cause diction disorders, problems with the digestive system due to insufficient chewing, psychological problems when the child sees his/her crooked teeth;
- The jaws may not develop properly;
- If too much pressure is put on the chewing muscles, teeth grinding may occur, which is very unpleasant for the child and the people around him.
Therefore, in some cases, the loss of baby teeth is another reason to visit the dentist and the need for pediatric dentures.
What You Need to Know About Pediatric Dentures
As mentioned above, the need for dentures in children occurs when milk teeth fall out prematurely and is used to preserve space in the mouth for the normal growth of permanent teeth. Children’s dentures must meet a number of requirements:
- Dentures should be as comfortable as possible, since children are particularly sensitive to foreign objects in the mouth;
- Dentures should by no means damage healthy baby teeth;
- the denture should facilitate the growth of new permanent teeth as much as possible, and not hinder it;
- the dentures should be aesthetically pleasing, so that the child has no reason to be unhappy with himself or herself and his or her appearance, and no reason for peers to ridicule him or her;
- the denture should be hypoallergenic.
The main problem when visiting a pediatric dentist is anesthesia. Children are afraid of the pain that will follow during dental treatment, but they are even more afraid of shots to the gum. So what to do in this case? In modern dentistry, pediatric anesthesia is performed with lidocaine, which is simply moistened on a cotton swab and applied to the child’s mucosa. This will avoid painful sensations and make the visit to the dentist a little more pleasant.
From the above, it follows that your child should always be seen at the dentist from almost the first days of life. Proper and timely examinations will help to avoid the development of diseases of the child’s mouth, as well as the formation of malocclusion.
