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Pediatric Dental Questions that Every Parent Needs to Ask
Taking your child to the dentist is a scary life event, especially if you have a dental phobia yourself. One way to help ease the anxiety over taking your kids to the pediatric dentists is to come to the appointment prepared.
Having a list of questions that every parent needs to ask about pediatric dentistry can help set your mind at ease and prepare you for taking an active role in the dental health of your child.
The Best Toothpaste
There are so many types of toothpastes available that I often get asked by parents, “Which toothpaste should I use?”.
These basic types of toothpaste are available:
- non-fluoridated
- fluoridated
- highly fluoridated
- sensitive formula
- tartar control formula
- whitening
- with or without sodium lauryl sulftate soap
All toothpastes have pretty much the same ingredients, but try to make themselves stand out in various ways. The most common ingredients are:
Dietary Supplements for Dental Health
Today a mother of a six year old girl from West Linn told me that she would not give her daughter any food that had aspartame in it because it accumulated in brain cells and could not be removed. Since only natural sugar would do, naturally her daughter has many cavities.
In addition to regular sucrose sugar, she also used Stevia - a very sweet plant with leaves 300 times sweeter than regular sugar! Now that got my attention.
Baby Juice Bottles
Parents who come into my Portland, Oregon pediatric dental practice often tell me, “My baby loves juice and I just cannot take it away, so I water it down.”
These parents love their babies and want them to have all the good things in life. Juice is sweet and delicious and healthy too. Right?
Crossbites
Let’s get some definitions out of the way. Upper teeth that bite inside lower teeth are called:
- crossbite
- cross-bite
- cross bite
An anterior crossbite involves the front teeth and a posterior crossbite involves the back teeth.
Rarely, the upper posterior teeth bite completely outside the lower teeth in a condition called a scissor bite.
A posterior crossbite can involve either one side, called a unilateral crossbite, or both sides, called a bilateral crossbite.
Saving Space
Orthodontists are always worrying about space. When we are lucky, and this is most of the time, there is just the right amount of space for the top teeth and the bottom teeth to come together properly when all the teeth touch and are nice and straight.
The primary baby teeth are important for chewing and biting and speaking and especially for maintaining the space needed for the future permanent adult teeth.
Treating Portland Pulps & Root Canals
“Root canal? Ouch!” That is what most of my Portland patients tell me, but luckily root canal treatments take away toothaches to make you feel better.
Usually dentists prefer to treat infected root canal pulps before they start to hurt because this is the most comfortable way to go. Waiting for a tooth to hurt before starting root canal treatment is usually less comfortable.
Permanent teeth with infected pulps need root canal treatment.
When to Start Kids Braces?
Most of my Portland patients ask me when to start braces for their kids. I have been practicing orthodontics in Portland since 1995 and so I have seen many of my pediatric dental patients grow up from infancy through their teens.
Some orthodontists recommend treating crooked teeth or teeth that do not occlude (bite together properly) in two phases or treatment steps. The first phase usually starts around second or third grade and a second phase around sixth grade.
Super Orthodontic Wires
Moving teeth is a relatively simple matter. Just push on a tooth with gentle force for a long time and the tooth will move. Kids that suck their thumbs will move their teeth forward with their thumbs.
We move teeth with brackets glued to teeth and wires between them. The trick to moving teeth orthodontically is to have the gentle forces continue for a long enough time.
Plaque in Portland
Most people have heard about dental plaque but not everyone knows what it is.
Dental plaque is a thick sticky waterproof cream-colored coating that develops on teeth over time. It is made up of bacteria and their wastes with saliva components.
Sticky mucopolysaccharides are the mortar of dental plaque. They protect the bacteria by gluing the whole colony to tooth enamel and making them resistant to washing off with normal eating and drinking.
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