Pediatric Dentistry 101: Everything You Should Know

Did you know that excellent oral health is best attained at an early age? Considering dental care before your teeth need it is the best way to ensure you maintain a healthy mouth. While adults benefit a lot from dental services, children too can enjoy the services, which is why pediatric dentistry in Houston, TX exists.

What Is Pediatric Dentistry?

It is a specialty of dentistry that is concerned with dental care services to children. A pediatric dentist has gathered extensive knowledge of children’s teeth and bone structure. Such experience allows them to cater to oral problems for children from the infancy stage to teenagehood.

Why Do Children Need Dental Care?

Dental care for children can start as early as 1 year old. As soon as your child starts teething, they are ready for pediatric dentistry at Houston, TX. The purpose of dental care for children is not just about handling cavities, as is shown below. Some of the reasons your child needs dental care include:

• Preventive dental care – prevention is better than cure, regardless of age. However, when it comes to kids, prevention is paramount, given their high risk of infection form different stimuli. Preventive dentistry majors in dental care as early as possible to offer protection to teeth before damage occurs. Most preventive dental care services focus on teeth cleaning, fluoride treatment, dental sealants, and dental spacers, to mention a few. Children go through different growth and development stages. Without proper protection through dental care, you may have to invest more on correcting different dental problems. With pediatric dentistry, your child is entitled to preventive dental care to help fight aging oral problems, ranging from tooth decay to gum problems.

• Orthodontic care – children’s teeth are always growing and the bone structures changing. Unfortunately, not every child enjoys properly aligned teeth naturally. Most kids need orthodontics to help realign their teeth from an early age. The advantage of pediatric care is that pediatric dentists can detect any anomaly in how the teeth are growing. This allows for the problem to be managed at that early stage before the problems are too severe. Treatment includes using braces, retainers, mouthguards, and other teeth aligners. The earlier the problem is resolved, the better your child’s teeth will look, even with age.

• Dental habit counseling and training – kids pick up all sorts of habits. When the habits are positive, it excites you as a parent. However, equally, kids can pick up bad habits, which are usually hard to break. Such include thumb sucking, biting nails or even teeth grinding at night. If you allow the habits to continue, your child may resist any changes regarding the habits. Besides these habits harm the health of teeth. Pediatric dentists have specialized in children’s teeth as well as behavioral health. This makes them knowledgeable enough to handle such habits. They can help trade bad habits for good dental practices.

• Dental emergencies – medical emergencies are not new for adults with children. The hyperactivity of children both indoors and outdoors merits several accidents. For oral health, emergencies are also real. At any time, your child can have severe bleeding, lose a tooth, have an allergic reaction or have severe swelling in the mouth. All these require quick medical attention. Pediatric dental services have a provision for dental emergencies.

• Oral health tips – children are not very fond of taking care of their teeth. This for children may translate to plaque buildup that breeds room for dental decay L, gingivitis, among other problems. Making an effort to regularly visit a pediatric dentist helps your child pick up different tips on oral care. Dental experts in pediatric facilities can even make oral care fun for children, thereby encouraging the practice.

• Overall health care – dentists are not mediocre medical professionals. They have an advanced level of training and experience that allows them to be resourceful with overall health care. This means that as your child regularly visits the pediatric dentist, any overall health problems can be detected. Such include temporomandibular joint disorders, tonsillitis, sleep apnea, migraine headaches, to mention a few. Besides, the dentist will help your child feel comfortable when it comes to medical intervention, which can help solve dental anxiety and any other type of medical anxiety.