teeth
Why Thumb Sucking Can Affect the Growth of Your Child’s Teeth
A child sucking their thumb is a normal part of being an infant. Infants may even begin sucking on their thumb within the womb, and it is fine for them to carry on doing so until they are about 6 months of age. After this particular age, the impulse to carry on has disappeared, but the problem is the fact many babies still suck their thumbs well after this time and it might prevent their teeth from growing in a healthy manner.
Combating Smelly Breath in Children and Teens
Any time a child has smelly breath, it could be quite upsetting. Each time a kid is teased for having bad breath, they can start having poor self-esteem or other self perception issues.
Preventing bad breath begins with understanding what causes it. Here are some common sources of bad breath in children and teens.
Three Reasons Why Flossing is So Important
Have you ever wondered why flossing is so important? Perhaps you’re one of those people who hate to floss, and don’t see the point. Only dentists, supermodels, and neat-freaks floss every day, right?
Well, the plain truth is that flossing is important if you plan to keep your natural teeth throughout your life. (And, you don’t have to be a dentist, a supermodel, or a neat-freak to make flossing a part of your hygiene routine.)
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?
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.
Gum Infections in Portland
A four year old boy from Portland came in with his mother, complaining of swelling around his baby molar.
When I looked at it, I noticed that there was an infection around the last molar, next to where the permanent tooth develops.
Since it could be either an infection of the tooth that spread to the gingiva (gums) or an infection of the gums that could affect the developing teeth, we took an x-ray.
Flossing Braces
Keeping braces clean is so important to moving teeth that it bears repeating. Keeping braces clean is so important to moving teeth.
Why is it important you ask? To completely correct a badly positioned tooth, the tooth must slide the brace along the wire in the brace only a few millimeters.
That is NOT very far! Two years to move something the thickness of a pencil!
Tears & Fears
As a pediatric dentist, I specialize in children and special needs patients. Nevertheless, a large part of my job is overcoming parental fears.
Parents have an incredible influence on their children; both positively and negatively.
Kids are so tuned into parental non-verbal communication that even if a mother does not say anything negative about an upcoming dental visit, their own worries and fears will cause their child to worry too.
Tartar or Calculus
You know that hard stuff that seems to grow on your teeth and that sounds screechy but makes your teeth feel nice and smooth when the dental hygienist scrapes it off?
That is calculus (Greek for ‘small stone’) and also called tartar (but has nothing to do with the sauce).
Tartar forms by many days of mineral-containing saliva or spit washing over your teeth and calcifying any plaque on your teeth. Because plaque forms continuously, people who have lots of minerals in their saliva make more tartar.
Filling Materials
When a tooth gets a cavity it must be filled or it will continue to decay and get worse – even to the point of death.
What kind of materials are available to fix holes in teeth?
The most common material for about a century has been silver and copper mixed with mercury with a little tin. This mixture is called amalgam or simply silver filling.
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