Preserving Baby Teeth Crucial to Future Dental Health

It’s easy to view your child’s primary (“baby”) teeth as less important than the permanent teeth replacing them. They’re temporary — the last of them will give way around ages 10 to 13 — so why go to extraordinary lengths to save them if they’re decayed?

Although relatively short in life, primary teeth are indeed important. They, of course, provide young children a means to speak and eat. But they’re also pivotal to your child’s mouth and facial development. A primary tooth lost early can lead to adverse effects in the permanent teeth and bite later.

A primary tooth holds open the space in the jaw for the permanent tooth as it develops below the gums. When it’s ready to come in, the roots of the primary tooth dissolves (resorbs), allowing it to be lost. If they are lost too early, though, it can disrupt this spacing, especially for a back tooth. If this happens, adjacent teeth can move or “drift” naturally into the open space, greatly increasing the chances of a bad bite (malocclusion). The permanent tooth may then come in the wrong position or perhaps not at all, setting up the need for costly future orthodontic treatment.

That’s why it’s better to save the tooth if we can, even employing a modified root canal treatment for deep decay if necessary. If, however, the primary tooth is lost prematurely due to disease or trauma, we can still attempt to preserve the space left behind. One way is to install a “space maintainer,” a metal orthodontic device that prevents adjacent teeth from moving into the space. This will still require constant monitoring and extra care to prevent the device from dislodging.

The best strategy for preserving primary teeth is, of course, prevention. By establishing daily brushing when the first teeth appear in the mouth, coupled with regular dental cleanings and checkups twice a year and a diet low in sugar-added foods, you can reduce the risk of dental disease. Further prevention with sealants or topical fluoride can also strengthen young teeth.

Keeping primary teeth healthy will help ensure they’ll continue until they’ve served their purpose. In the end they’ll set the stage for a lifetime of healthy teeth.

If you would like more information on caring for your child's primary teeth, please contact Dr. Cindy Sumarauw at 801-281-3500 to schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Importance of Baby Teeth.”

3 Tips for Helping Your Child Feel More Comfortable Going to the Dentist

There’s really no secret to keeping your child’s teeth healthy — good, daily hygiene habits, regular dental visits and early treatment for emerging problems. It’s a lot easier for those things to happen if your child feels comfortable with dental care and visiting the dentist. Sadly, that’s not always the case: many children develop an unhealthy fear of the dentist because the initial relationship may have been mishandled.

Here, then, are 3 tips that will help you foster a healthy relationship between your child and their dentist.

Visit the dentist before their first birthday. From a health standpoint, dental visits should begin soon after your child’s first teeth emerge (erupt) in the mouth. Visiting the dentist by their first birthday also improves the chances they’ll develop a sufficient level of comfort with the visits, more so than if you waited a year or two longer.

Choose your dentist with your child’s sense of security and comfort in mind. When you’re looking for a dentist to care for your child, think of it as looking for a “new member of the family.” It’s important to find an office environment that’s kid-friendly and staff members that work well with children. Some dentists specialize in pediatric dentistry and many general dentists have additional training in working with children. The key is a dental team that has a good, trust-building rapport with children.

Set an example, both in the home and at the dentist. Children learn quite a bit watching what their caregivers say and how they react in potentially stressful situations. If dental care is important to you personally, it’s more likely to become important to your child. And when you visit the dentist with your child, be sure to project calm and a sense that it’s routine — if you display tenseness or nervousness your child may take that as a sign that visiting the dentist is something to fear.

You want your child to learn that the dentist is their friend who’s there to help them. That lesson should begin early with the right dental team — and by making dental care a priority in your own life.

If you would like more information on dental care for your child, please contact Dr. Cindy Sumarauw at 801-281-3500 to schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Taking the Stress out of Dentistry for Kids.”

Preventing Early Childhood Cavities

When do you think is the earliest age that tooth decay can start? Would you be surprised to learn that the answer is… just two months!

In spite of our best efforts, throughout the world tooth decay remains the most common chronic disease of childhood. And the unfortunate truth is, it’s largely preventable. Tooth decay is caused by harmful bacteria living in the mouth. These bacteria produce acids as a byproduct of feeding on the sugar we consume. The acids attack the hard enamel surfaces of the teeth, eventually making the small holes we know as cavities.

For thousands of years, these bacteria have been thriving in the carbohydrate-rich environment of our mouths. Kids aren’t born with these germs — often, however, they are passed directly from caregiver to child. But there are things you can do to keep from passing the bacteria to your children. For example, don’t share toothbrushes; don’t put items in baby’s mouth after you have licked them or put them in yours; and, if you have untreated dental disease, try to avoid kissing the baby’s lips. (And for goodness sake, don’t pre-chew a baby’s food, no matter what any celebrity may suggest.)

One effective way to control tooth decay is by reducing the amount of sugar in the diet. Sodas and candy aren’t the only culprits — fruit juices are also high in sugar. And remember, it’s not just what your child eats or drinks that matters, but when they consume it. Given time, saliva will neutralize and wash away the acids that bacteria produce. But if kids are constantly taking in sugar, the saliva can’t keep up. So give those little teeth a break — limit sugar to mealtimes, and avoid sweet treats at other times of day.

What other steps can you take to stop tooth decay before it starts? It helps to identify kids who may be more susceptible to dental disease. Given the same diet with the same oral hygiene practices, some children are much more likely than others to develop tooth decay. If these high-risk kids receive preventive treatments — such as fluoride varnishes, help with diet modification, and other measures — early tooth decay can be successfully prevented, and even reversed in some cases.

If you’re concerned that dental treatment may be too scary for little ones, you should know that we put a great deal of effort into making office visits as stress-free as possible. We have plenty of tricks to keep youngsters happy — and distracted — while we take care of business. You can help too… by maintaining a positive outlook and setting a good example.

If you would like more information about cavity prevention for children, please contact Dr. Cindy Sumarauw at 801-281-3500 to schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can learn more in the Dear Doctor magazine article “Taking the Stress Out of Dentistry for Kids.”

Taking the Stress Out of Childhood Dental Visits

Dentists have been saying for years that it helps to see children as early as possible — ideally, around the time they reach one year old. Just recently, an evidence-based study was released that backs this up: It shows that starting dental visits prior to age one actually reduces the cost of oral health care, and helps ensure that kids have pleasant dental experiences in the future.

Why do young children need to go to the dentist if they only have one or two teeth (and they’re baby teeth, to boot)? For one thing, those early dental visits get a child used to the new sights and sounds of the office: the big chair, the shiny equipment, and the friendly staff who will be taking care of them. And even at this tender age, it’s not too soon to check for signs of decay, make sure gums are healthy, and show everyone the best techniques for keeping up good oral hygiene in a growing mouth.

Still, it’s natural for a child to be a little nervous before an office visit. (Even grown-ups have been known to show some anxiety at the dental office from time to time.) To ease their way through, there are several techniques you can borrow from behavioral psychology to help make the experience as stress-free as possible.

First… just relax. Remember that kids quickly pick up on non-verbal cues that tell them something’s wrong — so try and stay positive, and keep smiling. You should prepare the little ones for what’s coming — but not too much information, please! We go to great efforts to make children feel safe and comfortable in our care, and we can tell them all they need to know in age-appropriate terms. In fact, most of your child’s first dental visit may consist of a show-and-tell about what we do and what tools we use.

Another thing to keep in mind is that parents are the major role models for their children, both in and out of the home. Kids naturally follow along — in both good and bad ways. If parents take good care of their own teeth, it helps kids develop good oral hygiene habits too. That includes brushing and flossing regularly, limiting sugary snacks between meals, and avoiding non-nutritious drinks — not only sodas, but also so-called “sports” and “energy” drinks, which can be extremely high in sugar and caffeine.

Of course, regular visits to the dentist should also be a part of every adult’s oral hygiene program. If your child sees you relaxing in the chair, it’s much easier for them to do it too. And that’s good for everybody’s health.

If you would like more information about children’s dental visits, please contact Dr. Cindy Sumarauw at 801-281-3500 to schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can learn more in the Dear Doctor magazine article “Taking the Stress Out of Dentistry for Kids.”

Sealants and Protecting your Child from Cavities

As a parent, hearing that your child has a cavity is almost worse than hearing that you have a cavity. You wonder if the cavity is your fault — did you fail to teach your child proper oral hygiene? Should you have spent more time teaching him how to brush? Well, luckily, there are several ways, in addition to diligent oral hygiene, to protect your children's teeth from decay.

When your children are young, the newly erupted enamel of their teeth is more permeable and therefore more susceptible to tooth decay. As the enamel matures, it becomes stronger and more resistant to decay. Until this point, it is very important to protect the surfaces of your child's newly erupting teeth.

One way to protect the enamel is with fluoride, which makes the surface of enamel harder and less vulnerable to acid attack and decay. However, because of the deep pits and fissures in the teeth, they are still at high risk for decay and may need further protection. In these cases, we might recommend sealants, protective coatings placed in the pits and fissures of teeth to prevent decay. In doing so, these invisible coatings actually “seal” them from attack. The procedure is usually completely painless, and only occasionally, a very small amount of tooth enamel is removed. Though some children feel a quick tinge of cold during the procedure, this mild feeling is not enough to demand the use of numbing injections.

Generally, we will use sealants when we examine your child and find that decay is starting or likely to start in a tooth. However, in cases where children have a high risk of cavities, we may seal all permanent molar teeth and many baby molar teeth soon after eruption.

If you would like more information about sealants, please contact Dr. Cindy Sumarauw at 801-281-3500 to schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article “Sealants for Children.”