At What Age Should A Child See A Dentist?

As a parent, you want to protect your child from everything that will hurt him. You want to ensure that he’s healthy and happy. It’s important to pay attention to his dental health starting at a very young age. Here are the recommendations for children’s dental visits.

When the first tooth appears…

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends that you take your child to the dentist for a first checkup as soon as his first tooth erupts. He should return for checkups every six months afterwards. Though baby teeth are temporary, their health is very important. Your child will have his first teeth until he’s at least five, and they provide a foundation for adult teeth.

The first visit puts your child at ease.

Visiting the dentist at a very young age is beneficial for more reasons than just dental health. Your child will become accustomed to the dental office, the dentist and his staff. When they start at a young age, the experience of having a checkup and cleaning become routine and kids learn to look forward to visiting their dentist.

What to expect at your child’s first dental visit.

Your dentist will perform an exam to feel for your child’s remaining baby teeth. He may take X-rays if he is concerned about the placement of the teeth. Your dentist will talk to you about oral hygiene and show you how to brush your child’s teeth and gums to keep them healthy. He may recommend a fluoride supplement, depending on your location and the amount of fluoride in your tap water. Your dentist may also recommend sealants for your child’s teeth, once all of his baby teeth have appeared.

Dental visits in addition to normal checkups.

In addition to regular exams and cleanings every six months, your child should see the dentist if any of the following occurs:

• Tooth pain
• Dental injury that results in chipping, cracking or a tooth falling out
• Discoloration of teeth
• Baby or permanent teeth that don’t descend
• Habitual thumb-sucking past the age of three

Daily care of your child’s first teeth

Before your child’s first teeth erupt, wipe his gums gently with a clean, damp cloth at least twice per day. You can also use a soft toothbrush specially made for infants. Once the first tooth appears, brush it and the gums gently with fluoridated toothpaste and a soft-bristle children’s toothbrush. Use only a very small amount of toothpaste and make sure your child spits out any excess.

Ensure that your child is getting proper nutrition for healthy teeth. A balanced diet with strict limits on sugary foods and drinks will set your child up for a lifetime of dental health.

At What Age Do Kids Lose Their Baby Teeth?

Once your child’s friends start losing their baby teeth, he’ll be eager to lose his as well. It’s a rite of passage that means a visit from the Tooth Fairy and a little bit of money under the pillow. Not all children lose teeth at the same age, however.

Kindergarten and First Grade

Walk into any kindergarten or first grade classroom, and you’ll find a bunch of gap-toothed smiles. The most common age for children to begin losing teeth is age 6; the age of early-elementary school. If your child loses a tooth during the school day, odds are that his teacher will have a special envelope or small case in her desk so that the tooth doesn’t get lost.

Which Teeth Fall Out First?

Baby teeth usually fall out in roughly the same order that they first came in. The two middle top and bottom front teeth fall out first, followed by the teeth next to the middle teeth (the incisors), then the first molars.

Your child will lose baby teeth until around age twelve.

The Importance of Good Oral Hygiene

Proper oral care is crucial from the time your child is a baby, throughout his life. Though baby teeth will fall out and be replaced, they should be brushed twice per day and flossed daily. Without proper hygiene, baby teeth will become decayed and the adult teeth can also be adversely affected.

Even while teeth are loose, they should be carefully brushed and flossed.

To Pull or Not to Pull?

Parents often wonder if they should pull a child’s loose tooth—especially if it seems to take a long time to fall out. Typically, a tooth should be allowed to fall out on its own. Encourage your child to wiggle the tooth with his tongue (avoid having him use his fingers unless they’re clean). Eventually, the tooth will work itself loose.

If the permanent tooth is coming in and the baby tooth still remains firmly attached, see your dentist. He or she can make a recommendation or may even pull the tooth in the office. Whatever you do, don’t yank on a tooth that isn’t loose enough—it could traumatize your child and cause gum damage.

Bleeding With Tooth Loss

It’s common to see a little bit of blood when a tooth falls out. Apply a bit of pressure to the gums with a square of damp, clean gauze. Bleeding should slow and stop within an hour or so. See your dentist if this isn’t the case.

Swallowing a Tooth

This happens more often than you might think—your child bites into his dinner, the loose tooth comes out, and he accidentally swallows it. This usually isn’t a problem; a baby tooth is small enough that it won’t cause any harm—other than some disappointment that the tooth fairy might not come.

What Foods are Good for Your Teeth?

You already know that brushing, flossing and regular cleanings are important if you want healthy teeth. But did you know that what you eat has an impact on your dental health, too? Here are 4 foods that are good for your teeth.

Foods that are bad for your teeth

In addition to eating the good stuff, you should avoid the bad stuff. Some foods have a particularly negative effect on your dental health.

Sugary foods and beverages interact with the plaque in your mouth and the result is acid that breaks down the enamel on your teeth. The effect can last for up to 20 minutes after you eat. Sticky sweets, like caramels or taffy are even worse, because the food itself sticks to your teeth, prolonging the contact with plaque.

Why Do Gums Bleed When Brushing?

ADaily brushing is important for healthy teeth and gums. When your gums bleed during or after brushing, there may be cause for concern. Here are 9 reasons your gums may be bleeding:

How to Clean Your Teeth Without a Toothbrush

Have you ever gone on a trip and realized you forgot your toothbrush? Maybe you’re camping with your family and discover you’re lacking your favorite dental tool. In that horrible moment, you see your dental health crashing before your eyes as visions of heavy plaque and cavities invade your mind. Then you probably thought: “there’s got to be a way around that.” Good news, there is a way to take care of your teeth amid such awful situations. Just collect your toothpaste, yourself and a paper towel—or napkin if paper towels are scarce.

Brushing Without a Toothbrush

Brushing Without any Dental Supplies

Sometimes, it isn’t just your toothbrush that’s missing. Every now and then, the whole arsenal of dental supplies will be where you aren’t and you’re in a situation where a toothbrush won’t come easy. Luckily, there’s a way to clean your teeth until you can get a hold of something better.

Helpful Tips for Where You Are

If you’re at a hotel when you discover the absence of your dental supplies, go ahead and call the front desk. Most hotels can provide a toothbrush and toothpaste for you if you’ve forgotten yours.

If you’re out camping with the family without a toothbrush, you can scout out a green twig. Clean it as well as you can and chew on the end until the fibers fray. You’ll have yourself a homemade toothbrush to glide across your teeth.

DO NOT go very long without brushing your teeth with an actual toothbrush. These tactics certainly help when you’re in a pickle, but don’t compare to the effective brushing of a toothbrush.

What Does Fluoride Do to Your Teeth?

You’ve probably heard that fluoride is good for you teeth and, yet, what it does has somehow remained a mystery. It’s actually rather simple: fluoride protects and strengthens your teeth. With all the different foods we eat and beverages we drink, sometimes the enamel of our teeth get a little worn away. Fluoride’s purpose is to both prevent damage to teeth as well as strengthening the enamel that may have already been damaged. It’s actually quite effective. But if you already have a cavity, then the damage is beyond fluoride’s repair in that area. So maybe fluoride has become your teeth’s new best friend, you just need to find it. It’s actually more common than you think.

While some foods can be acidic and dangerous to your pearly whites, others can be helpful. Fluoride is naturally found in some foods like meat,  fish and eggs, which will be absorbed into the bloodstream and eventually get into your teeth. Tea leaves also naturally contain fluoride. Some places do fluoridation, which is putting fluoride in the community’s water supply to ensure that everyone in the area is getting a proper amount of fluoride.  If all that doesn’t make fluoride available enough, then there are several dental products with fluoride included.

Fluoride Treatments

By using dental products containing fluoride, the fluoride can be directly applied to the teeth. Fluoride can be found in mouthwashes, toothpastes, fluoride gels and fluoride supplements.  If home treatment doesn’t seem to be enough, then there are also topical fluoride treatments done by dental professionals. These treatments also apply fluoride directly to the teeth, but are much more effective and ensure a better coverage of the teeth.

Everybody needs some fluoride in their lives to ensure they have healthy teeth, but there are some people who may need fluoride more than others. Individuals who are prone to cavities because of their diet, their access to a dentist or for genetic reasons need to be especially diligent in their exposure of fluoride. Also, those who are undergoing some sort of orthodontic treatment, like braces, will benefit greatly from some sort of fluoride treatment. Some orthodontics encourage the use of fluoride since bacteria can collect around the brackets and cause damage to the enamel and leave white marks on your teeth. Using fluoride while wearing braces will protect your teeth from this sort of damage and ensure that your teeth will be straight and beautiful after the brackets are removed.

Fluoride is perfectly safe when used in proper amounts and applied correctly. Of course, too much exposure can be harmful. For example, we try not to swallow toothpaste because we know that consuming it can be bad for us. Little bits here and there are okay, but gulping up a whole tube of toothpaste will make you sick. It’s the same with fluoride: don’t swallow it if you can help it. If you’re not certain how often to apply fluoride or what would the best treatment, go ahead and ask your dentist at your next checkup. They’ll gladly discuss it with you to help you feel comfortable about applying fluoride.

Can Wisdom Teeth Cause Headaches?

Wisdom teeth can be a hassle. Or they can be nothing at all, just some extra teeth hanging out in the back of your mouth. But if you’re one of the unlucky people with troublesome wisdom teeth, you might start wondering what sorts of problems your good ol’ wisdom teeth area actually giving you. As they’re coming in, a headache might pop up. Sometimes a headache is just a headache. But if your wisdom teeth are coming in and giving you grief, that headache might be a wisdom tooth headache.

As those great teeth of false wisdom appear, a gum pouch develops where the tooth is trying to push through. This pouch can become infected, swelling up and getting in the way of some of your other teeth. Obviously, you don’t want to bite on that tiny pillow of infected gum tissue; it would hurt too much. So, most people solve the biting issue by adjusting their jaw position and changing their bite. This is where the problem really begins.

By adjusting the position of your jaws, you may be instantly developing a bad bite. This makes the jaw joints go into the wrong position, which causes them to become inflamed and provide pain and problems for you. If that isn’t horrible enough, the bad bite pushes your jaw joints into your ear muscles whenever your teeth bite together. Because of this, your jaw muscles try and correct the problem to keep the pressure of the ear muscles, but instead go into spasms and cause pain. That is what causes that awful headache. Headaches are terrible enough, but someone with incoming wisdom teeth may constantly experience a wisdom tooth headache.

Treatment

The best treatment for a wisdom tooth headache is the removal of those wisdom teeth. Taking painkillers will only take away the pain and will not correct the core problem. Removing your wisdom teeth will keep your jaw from developing an improper bite and will, in turn, stop those wisdom tooth headaches.

A Wisdom Tooth Infection

In some cases, a wisdom tooth infection can create pus that leaks into the jaw muscles and irritates them. Such an infection can prevent a person from opening their mouth and can also throw in that unpleasant wisdom tooth headache. In these situations, see a dentist immediately, as the infection can flow into the brain and cause long term issues or even death.

How to Prevent Dental Stains

With all the foods and beverages readily available to us night and day, there is almost nothing to stop us from eating what we want, whenever we want, however often we want. But, maybe you’ve noticed your teeth looking a little less sparkly than they used to and you’re wondering how you can keep your teeth pearly white. The only way to truly prevent dental stains is to avoid what’s staining them in the first place, which is basically hidden in whatever you consume daily.

You’ve probably heard of a few foods that are sure to stain your teeth over time, but the list is a little longer than most realize. The main groups of foods and beverages to avoid are acidic, sugary and deeply pigmented foods.

So, maybe you looked through all this and realized that you just can’t give up those favorite foods. Is there still some way to prevent that awful staining? If you just can’t give up your favorite daily soda, then there are still some things you can do.

So, even if you can’t break away from your dietary routine, you can do a few other things to minimize the staining your teeth, especially if you just whitened your teeth and want that nice white surface to linger. But, don’t whiten your teeth too often, as your teeth may take on a grayish color, which is probably not what you’re going for. If you’re unsure of what foods you can eat or what you can do to prevent dental staining, just ask your dentist for advice. It’s always better to ask a dental professional about what’s good and bad for your teeth and ensure that you’re keeping great dental health.

How to Floss Correctly

Your whole life you’ve been told that dental hygiene is important. By now, you’re probably excellent at brushing your teeth, but have always questioned whether or not you were flossing properly. Sometimes it can be hard to motivate yourself for flossing, but that simple string can get places that your trusty toothbrush can’t. Of course, that’s only as long as you floss correctly.

Braces or Other Dental Work

If you have braces, a permanent retainer or some other dental work that can get in the way of normal flossing, there is special orthodontic floss that’s stiffer and can be threaded under wires. There’s also the option of floss threaders, which look like plastic, bendable needles. You can simply thread the floss through the loop and easily push the threader and floss under wires.

What is a Tooth Abscess?

Perhaps the only thing you’ve ever known about tooth abscesses is that you don’t want one. But why is it so bad? What exactly is it? Frankly, it’s something you definitely want to avoid. A tooth abscess is a collection of pus at the tip of a single tooth; a pocket of fluid within the tissue surrounding the tooth’s apex. It’s often a result of an infection in the pulp of a tooth. This pulp infection can be caused by a serious gum disease, tooth decay or maybe something as simple as a chipped tooth. It sounds bad enough as it is, but does it hurt?

The actual infection of the pulp may not cause any pain, but once an abscess has formed, there is usually an ongoing, extreme pain in the tooth and the gums surrounding it. Using that tooth to chew or putting any sort of heat to it will only cause more pain and the abscess may also cause swelling in the gums or cheek. Luckily, the swelling can be managed by pressing the usual ice pack to the affected tissue. Yet, with an acute abscess, the swelling may occur but the pain may not. In any case, if there are any symptoms of a dental problem, a dentist should be consulted immediately.

In some serious cases, the abscess could get through the bone and drain into nearby facial tissues. This can cause a more serious case of swelling and puff up more than just some gums and a little bit of your cheek. The abscess may also affect the lymph glands in the neck, which may become tender and a little swollen. If the abscess is bad enough, it may even cause pain similar to a migraine. But, generally, pain in the gums surrounding the infected tooth is common and the tooth itself is extremely tender to the touch.

Abscess Treatment

Obviously, it sounds like a lot of painful possibilities rolled up into one. It’s definitely something you want to get rid of immediately. Truly, the only way to get on the path to recovery is to visit your dentist. They can help identify whether or not that pesky pain is caused by a tooth abscess and, if it is, they can help you get rid of it and return to happy dental health. Unfortunately, the treatment of a tooth abscess isn’t always a skip in the park. What is done to solve the problem may depend on how bad the infection is and can go something like this:

Now that you know about tooth abscesses, be sure to visit the dentist if you suspect you have one. Even if isn’t an abscess, it’s better to be safe than sorry and may prevent worse issues that can result if you wait.