Complete Guide to Pediatric Dentistry: Expert Care for Your Child’s Oral Health

Your child starts developing teeth before they complete their first year. While you may be thrilled looking at your child’s first tooth, do you know what actions you must take to ensure you keep their mouth healthy? Can you take your child to your regular dentist or seek specialist care from a children’s dentist near me? This blog provides a complete guide to pediatric dentistry to deliver expert care for your child’s oral health. Kindly continue reading for more information.

What Is the Role of Pediatric Dentistry?

The role of pediatric dentistry is to provide specialized care for children’s emerging teeth by dental professionals who receive training to care for children’s teeth. Pediatric dentists are unlike regular dentists that begin practicing soon after completing dental school. In contrast, pediatric dentists gain further education to treat children’s teeth from infancy until adolescence. Pediatric dentists ensure your child has a healthy mouth and smile without infections or other issues confronting them during their early years.

The AAPD suggests parents to children to a pediatric dentist by age one or their first birthday. However, many dentists may recommend seeing your child at around six months to identify any risk factors in their mouths.

The first visit to the pediatric dentist in Hempstead, NY, helps the professional make the meeting positive and enjoyable for your child. The arrangement of the dentist with your child says the tone for comfortable and easy dental visits later. Your child will know the dentists, and the staff will explain everything to them in detail and answer any questions. Therefore, getting your child acclimatized to a dental office environment early is best to ensure they are comfortable with dental visits.

Common Pediatric Dental Issues and How to Prevent Them

As a parent, you may think children with one or two teeth are not likely to develop dental issues. However, you will likely be surprised when the Hempstead Station pediatric dentist explains your child can develop baby bottle tooth decay making you wonder how to feed your child. However, if you discuss the issue with the dentist, they will explain techniques to prevent BBTD by giving your child unsweetened beverages when sleeping or swapping the bottle for a cup.

Although beautiful, children’s teeth are not robust because they do not have strong enamel. In addition, children are attracted to sugary foods and beverages and are notorious for their dental hygiene regimen. As a result, children’s dental habits make them vulnerable to tooth decay and gum disease, easily preventable conditions best managed by parents by controlling their child’s diet and supervising brushing and flossing techniques until the child is six or seven.

Children can develop orthodontic problems around age seven. In such situations, pediatric dentists can identify malocclusions or misalignment of their teeth to suggest interventional therapies or recommend that you prepare for orthodontic treatments later.

The age of six or seven is also when children develop their first molars, and a pediatric dentist is best to identify the back teeth that remain more susceptible to cavities. Pediatric dentists suggest sealing the back teeth with dental sealants to prevent chronic dental issues among children with cavities. They also recommend fluoride treatments to strengthen your child’s tooth enamel making it more immune to tooth decay.

Despite the efforts of the pediatric dentists and your care to ensure your child develops proper dental hygiene practices to avoid tooth decay, children are sneaky and sooner or later will develop cavities on their teeth, needing fillings or more invasive treatments. Fortunately, pediatric dentists also receive training to administer anesthesia to ensure your child gets the fillers or other remedies that help restore teeth.

Children can develop the above problems when playing around in school or at home, needing emergency treatments for lost teeth with space maintainers to prevent their remaining teeth from drifting out of position. Pediatric dentists can provide all preventive treatments children need to ensure they develop beautiful straight teeth to complement their smiles.

Children need excellent dental care from infancy until adolescence when they can move to a general dentist. However, until they are prepared for the changeover, the pediatric dentist can care for their dental health by educating them about excellent dental hygiene habits like brushing and flossing to ensure they do not have to wear dentures by age 21 like George Washington, who lost all teeth by that age.

Now that you have the complete guide to pediatric dentistry, we hope you will schedule an appointment with Kane Dental of Hempstead for your child’s dental health care needs. Arrange the meeting today to ensure you get the best for your child from an experienced pediatric dentist.