Achieving dental health requires lifetime care that begins no later than your toddler's first birthday. During this period, parents have the responsibility of ensuring preventive dental care for their kids. This means taking their children for regular dental checkups to a qualified pediatric dentist. Additionally, regular flossing and a proper diet are also recommended.
Ignoring your child's dental health can lead to various problems — primarily bacteria and plaque buildup. Without treatment, plaque can develop into tartar and later result in gingivitis. That said, here are top reasons why preventative dental care for your child is important.
WHAT IS PREVENTIVE DENTAL CARE?
Well, preventive dental care is just what it sounds like--dental care designed to prevent oral problems. In essence, preventive dentistry is the part of dentistry that focuses on helping patients maintain good oral health, which for children means teaching and development. Preventive dentistry in pediatric dentistry is a combination of regular dental check-ups along with developing good habits like regular fluoride, brushing and flossing. Taking care of your teeth starts early in childhood and extends throughout the course of your life and a good pediatric dentist goes beyond this with things like nutrition education, tips for dealing with difficult situations and more.
WHAT IS PROPHYLAXIS?
Prophylaxis is just a fancy term for children's dental cleaning. The goal of a children's dental cleaning is to remove of plaque, tartar, and staining to prevent gum disease and decay on the teeth. Sometimes your child will need a cleaning more often than every six months, but a good pediatric dentist will develop a customized plan to help your child's specific needs.
WHAT IS FLUORIDE
There is a lot of misinformation about fluoride. Fluoride varnish treatment is an important way to prevent decay. It is just a tooth-colored gel that adheres to the teeth, and it helps remineralize tooth structure and prevent tooth decay. It is a valuable tool in preventive dental care.
OVERALL BODY HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
So, back to preventive dental care. Why does preventive dental care matter? To put it bluntly, lack of proper dental hygiene can cause oral infections such as gum disease and dental cavities. Long-term dental problems can lead to serious health conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. As a parent, you want the best for your child and part of that means helping them develop good dental habits in an effort to prevent serious problems.
Besides, going to the dentist can actually be fun for kids and this way, your kids get excellent overall body health and well-being. Plus, it enables them to live a healthy lifestyle and is really the best way to help avoid serious dental health problems likely to affect your child's life.
HEALTHY SMILE
Healthy smiles matter! Crooked, discolored, decayed, and teeth cavities may impact your kid's self-esteem or cause other associated discomforts. While your children continue to grow, if they suffer from dental issues, it may become hard for them to interact with others at school or home, which can lead to social problems and lower self-esteem.
By maintaining regular pediatric dentist visits, you can help your child keep their smile healthy and happy--and catch problems early. Here, the motive is to ensure they have restorative and preventive dental care during their young age that translates into a lifelong habit of good oral care. Plus, you can ensure your children enter adulthood with strong and healthy teeth!
REDUCED RESTORATION DENTAL WORK IN FUTURE
Let us face it, restoration dental work is not fun for children (or adults). Bacterial infection is among the leading causes of teeth decay and may accompany severe oral problems if it goes untreated. Dealing with such issues after the situation has worsened can be costly--and hard on kids (and adults). Hence, having preventive dental care for your kids helps you eliminate expensive dental work in the future.
Pediatric dentists often recommend practices such as routine X-rays, oral exams, and dental cleaning in case of early detection. However, ensuring your kids start preventive care at an early age helps enable a dental expert to eliminate any bacteria buildup, including other causal agents of dental decay in children.
LOW RADIATION DIGITAL X-RAYS
Digital radiographs are a valuable diagnostic tool to gather more information to ensure the oral health of your child. Beyond visual inspection for decay, dental x-rays can detect pathology, extra or missing teeth, and more. It can help create a comprehensive treatment plan for your child. Your child will be protected by utilizing the latest technology that reduces radiation exposure significantly while providing state-of-the-art quality images instantly.
There is minimal radiation exposure with dental x-rays. In fact, we are exposed to more natural background radiation from air, wind, water, the ground, and other environmental factors every year than the exposure from dental x-rays.
CONTACT US TODAY!
For good oral health for your kids in Ijamsville, MD, and surrounding areas, Urbana Pediatric Dentistry is your go-to dental clinic. We offer friendly, quality, and professional pediatric dentistry services and adept kids' nutrition tips to maintain healthy teeth. Contact us to schedule your youngster's preventive dental care service today!
To learn more about Urbana Pediatric Dentistry visit our About Us page. For more tips and information feel free to Contact Us and follow us on social media on Instagram @urbanapediatricdentistry and Facebook @urbanapediatricdentistry.
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