How Can Children’s Poor Dental Care Affect Their Health? – Dental Checks for Children at Walloon

Importance of kids’ dental check ups

While we’re constantly running around trying to organise everything needed to get back to school at this time of the year, a dental check up for your children can skip the mind. It can be easily overlooked when there’s been no complaints, no discoloured teeth, or other areas of concern, but there are many reasons why a dental check up for your kids is important.

At your children’s dental check up, we are not only looking at whether the teeth are healthy, we are also looking out for other signs and symptoms that indicate there may be a future problem. By detecting issues early, some can be solved in a timely manner.

Diet and Oral hygiene – one of the most important parts of prevention is not only the frequency of brushing but also the effectiveness of the brushing. Many kids may be brushing their teeth but miss critical areas like the back of the mouth where the first adult molars will erupt. Often these can cause issues like gum inflammation, or tooth decay, also known as caries. We will go through toothbrushing techniques with the children to ensure they are doing a good job of looking after their teeth at home. We will also assess the risk of developing decay, and provide advice about the diet to help strengthen the teeth.

Things we look out for:

Tooth decay – Some teeth may unfortunately be affected by poor diet or oral hygiene, and develop tooth decay. In the early stages, these areas are not painful. However, as the decay area gets larger and closer to the nerve, there becomes a higher likelihood of infection in the tooth. If the infection stays for a long time or becomes large enough, it can damage the underlying adult tooth, causing lifelong issues in the structure or colour of the adult tooth. By detecting and treating decay areas early, the sequence can be prevented thereby preserving the integrity of the adult tooth.

Tooth alignment – There can be instances where it seems like there’s too many or too little teeth for their mouth! While it is trendy for most kids to get braces these days, there are some situations when braces can be avoided altogether, saving the kids discomfort and saving the parents some cost. Minor discrepancies in the bite or alignment of the teeth can sometimes be treated early if deemed appropriate.

 

Other benefits of regular dental checks for children

 

• When the kids come back to the clinic on a consistent basis, rapport with the dentist can be built. Being used to the dental setting can help decrease dental anxiety in the future.
• The teeth are monitored over a period of time, which means if there are issues such as teeth alignment, your child can be treated at the appropriate stage of their growth.
• Regular check ups can help enforce good oral hygiene. Often knowing that you have a dentist appointment coming up provides enough encouragement to brush better!

Coming to the dentist for the first time? Check out our other blog “Young Children at the Dentist”!