Children’s Dental Care
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:-
1) BRUSHING
Brushing and can help remove harmful plaque bacteria. A child-size brush with soft, rounded or polished bristles is recommended. Check your child’s toothbrush often and replace it when it is worn. Bent or frayed bristles will not remove plaque effectively and may injure gums. Begin daily brushing as soon as the child’s first tooth erupts. A pea-size amount of fluoride toothpaste can be used after the child is old enough not to swallow it. By age 4 or 5, children should be able to brush their own teeth twice a day with supervision until about age seven to make sure they are doing a thorough job. However, each child is different.
Proper brushing removes plaque from the inner, outer and chewing surfaces. When teaching how to brush, you may wish to stand behind the child and hold the brush to be certain that brushing is done properly.
2) FLUORIDE
Children who receive a balanced diet will get all the nutrients they need with one possible exception — fluoride. Fluoride is vital for strong, decay-resistant teeth. Fluoride is one of the most effective elements for preventing tooth decay. This mineral combines with tooth enamel to strengthen it against decay. Fluoride may also reverse microscopic cavities by enhancing the process in which minerals, including calcium, are incorporated into the teeth.
The most effective way for your child to get fluoride’s protection is by drinking water containing the right amount of the mineral, (about one part fluoride per million parts water). This is of special benefit to children, because fluoride is built into the enamel as teeth form. Children who from birth drink water containing fluoride have up to 50 percent fewer cavities. Many of them remain cavity free through their teens.
However in the UK only 10% of the water supply is fluoridated which is why fluoride supplements are often indicated.
Although it is beneficial for a child to brush with a fluoride toothpaste, children under age six should be supervised to avoid swallowing toothpaste. Use no more than a pea-sized amount of toothpaste on the child’s brush. Children should be taught to spit out remaining toothpaste and rinse with water after brushing.
Before you give your child any vitamin or supplement that contains fluoride, check with your dentist to see if one is needed. Based on your dentist’s assessment of your family’s oral health, the use of additional fluoride-containing products may or may not be recommended.
3) SEALANTS
Sealants are helping to create a generation of youngsters that are nearly cavity-free.
Statistics show that one out of every three children between the ages of 5 and 17 has never had a cavity. Dental professionals attribute water fluoridation and use of sealants with helping to bring about this rapid decline in cavities.
The use of sealants does not eliminate the need for regular attention to dental care. Dentists recommend regular brushing along with attention to the amount of sugary foods consumed, and to the frequency with which they are eaten. The teeth are subjected to a 20-minute acid attack every time sugary foods are eaten causing an erosive action that can break down healthy enamel.
The plastic-like coating, called pit and fissure sealant, is applied to the chewing surface of the back teeth and to indentations and nicks in the teeth’s surfaces. It is used by dentists as a preventive measure to ward off decay that tends to settle into hidden crevices in the teeth.
The preventive plastics also are used to seal “fissures,” or joint lines in a tooth’s enamel created while the tooth is being formed. A perfect fissure should be tightly sealed, but often several spots along the length of the fissure will open directly into the tooth.
Food and bacteria collect there. This eventually weakens the tooth and causes decay. Sealants help during the formative stages so they can withstand the effect of sugar and stress later on.
To apply the sealant, the dentist first deans the tops and sides of selected teeth. The tooth enamel is then treated with a solution that etches the surface of the tooth, causing it to be temporarily porous and somewhat rough.
The liquid sealant, dear or milky white in color, is applied and is set hard using a powerful blue light. Within a few days, the excess plastic wear off, leaving the sealant only on the pits and fissures. The plastic covering is only temporary, and must be checked periodically for flaws.