Having children is something incredibly joyous in the lives of many people all throughout the United States and in the world as a whole, for that matter. However, having a child or multiple children is something that comes with a great many responsibilities as well, responsibilities that directly impact their overall health and well being. Their overall dental care is something that falls in line with that, as dental care is something that is hugely important indeed, to say the very least. For many people, however, the importance of dental care is not as well known as it really should be.
For instance, dental care must start early on in life, as any pediatric dentist will be quick to tell you. Dental hygiene practices can actually begin as soon as the child in question has begun to cut their first tooth. At this point, no toothpaste should be used, but the caretakers of the child can wipe down the tooth bud with a wet washcloth. As the child grows older, a training toothbrush and toothpaste without fluoride in it can be used. After two, normal toothpaste is typically okay to introduce, though it is important to consult with your pediatric dentist first.
And when, for that matter, should a pediatric dentist first be seen? Ideally, most kids dentists will ask you to bring your child in around their first birthday – and no later than around their second. Your pediatric dentist will examine their teeth and overall oral health, and will help to inform you on how to care for their teeth to avoid tooth decay. Taking your kids into a pediatric dentist from a very early age will help to normalize the concept of going to the dentist so that it is not a frightening thing later on in life, when they are older and able to conceptualize such fears in a more all encompassing way.
In addition to this, the information that your child’s pediatric dentist gives you can be invaluable. For instance, the pediatric dentist that you choose can tell you all about the benefits of fluoride, of which far too few people are actually aware of. In fact, one study that was conducted back in the year of 2012 actually found that more than 60% of all parents that used bottled water instead of tap water were not even aware of the fluoride levels – or lack thereof – in this bottled water. And many were not even aware of why that mattered in the first place. Speaking to someone like a pediatric dentist can certainly help to clear such matters up, to say the very least.
Avoiding processed and added sugar is something that a pediatric dentist can also help to inform you about. While many parents certainly know about the dangers of added sugar in drinks like sodas and will avoid giving their kids such, knowing about added sugars – and high levels of them, too – in other drinks is also hugely important. For instance, energy drinks should be avoided at all costs, as they actually have even more sugar than sports drinks, causing up to double the enamel loss thanks to other ingredients within them as well. Ideally, your child will just be drinking water and milk, be it cow’s milk or plant based milk, in order to preserve their overall health as well as the health of their teeth in particular.
Of course, there might come a time when your child will need to be sedated to have a cavity filled and rectified, as cavities are quite hugely common indeed – and there is no 100% foolproof way to prevent them, as many cavities are actually linked back to simple genetics. Fortunately, your pediatric dentist will have received training on how to safely sedate a child for the use of dental practice. In fact, as many as 250,000 different children will undergo sedation over the course of just one year alone, all of them safely. At the end of the day, the process of sedation is likely to be a much simpler one than you originally thought it would be, both for yourself as well as for your child.