Frequently Asked Questions about Your First Pediatric Dental Visit
Our doctors at Brink & White can help answer common pediatric dentistry questions from people just like you all around Bartlett, Lakeland and Munford.
If you don't see your question listed, always feel free to call our office at 901-382-0280 and our helpful team members can answer all your questions.
A toothbrush with soft bristles and a small head, especially one designed for infants, is the best choice for infants. Brushing at least once a day, at bedtime, will remove plaque bacteria that can lead to decay.
"First visit by first birthday" is the general rule. To prevent dental problems, your child should see a pediatric dentist like Brink & White when the first tooth appears, usually between six and twelve months of age, certainly no later than his/her first birthday.
Pediatric dentistry is a dental specialty that focuses on the oral health of young people. Following dental school, a pediatric dentist has two to three years additional specialty training in the unique needs of infants, children and adolescents, including those with special health needs.
Baby bottle tooth decay is a pattern of rapid decay associated with prolonged nursing. It happens when a child goes to sleep while breastfeeding and/or bottle-feeding.
During sleep, the flow of saliva is reduced and the natural self-cleansing action of the mouth is diminished. Avoid nursing children to sleep or putting anything other than water in their bedtime bottle.
Encourage your child to drink from a cup as they approach their first birthday. He/she should be weaned from the bottle at 12-14 months of age.
Thumb- and pacifier-sucking habits that go on for a long time can create crowded, crooked teeth or bite problems. Most children stop these habits on their own.
If they are still sucking their thumbs or fingers when the permanent teeth arrive, a mouth appliance may be recommended by your pediatric dentist at Brink & White.
Sealants are clear or shaded plastic applied to the teeth to help keep them cavity-free. Sealants fill in the grooved and pitted surfaces of the teeth, which are hard to clean, and shut out food particles that could get caught, causing cavities.
Fast and comfortable to apply, sealants can effectively protect teeth for many years.
Do not use fluoridated toothpaste until age three. Earlier than that, clean your child's teeth with water and a soft-bristled toothbrush. After age three, you should supervise your child’s brushing.
Use no more than a pea-sized amount of toothpaste and make sure your children do not swallow any excess toothpaste.
To comfort your child, rinse his/her mouth with warm saltwater and apply a cold compress or ice wrapped in a cloth on your child's face if it is swollen.
Do not put heat or aspirin on the sore area, but you may give the child acetaminophen for pain. See us as soon as possible.
Fluoride has been shown to dramatically decrease a person's chances of getting cavities by making teeth stronger.
The best and easiest way to get fluoride is through the drinking water, but to make sure your child is getting enough fluoride, have your pediatric dentist at Brink & White evaluate the fluoride level of your child's primary source of water.
If your child is not getting enough fluoride internally through water (especially in communities where the water district does not fluoridate the water or if your child drinks bottled water without fluoride), your pediatric dentist at Brink & White may prescribe fluoride supplements.
With contemporary safeguards, such as lead aprons and high-speed film, the amount of radiation received in a dental X-ray examination is extremely small.
Even though there is very little risk, your pediatric dentists at Brink & White are particularly careful to minimize your child’s exposure to radiation. In fact, dental X-rays represent a far smaller risk than an undetected and untreated dental problem.
A mouthguard should be a top priority on your child's list of sports equipment. Athletic mouth protectors, or mouthguards, are made of soft plastic and fit comfortably to the shape of the upper teeth.
They protect a child's teeth, lips, cheeks and gums from sports-related injuries. Any mouthguard works better than no mouthguard, but a custom-fitted mouth guard fitted by your doctor at Brink & White is your child's best protection against sports-related injuries.
At about six months, the two lower front teeth (central incisors) will erupt, followed shortly by the two upper central incisors.
The remainder of the baby teeth appear during the next 18 to 24 months but not necessarily in an orderly sequence from front to back. At two to three years, all of these 20 primary teeth should be present.
First of all, remain calm. If possible, find the tooth and hold it by the crown rather than the root. Replace the tooth in the socket and hold it there with clean gauze or a washcloth.
If you can't put the tooth back in the socket, place the tooth in a clean container with milk and take your child and the glass immediately to the pediatric dentist. The faster you act, the better your chances of saving the tooth.
Sore gums when teeth erupt are part of the normal eruption process. The discomfort is eased for some children by using a teething biscuit, a piece of toast or a frozen teething ring.
Your pharmacy should also have medications that can be rubbed on the gums to reduce the discomfort.
Usually, the space will close in the next few years as the other front teeth erupt. We can determine whether there is cause for concern at Brink & White Pediatric Dental Associates.
Primary, or "baby," teeth are important for many reasons. Not only do they help children speak clearly and chew naturally, but they also aid in forming a path those permanent teeth can follow when they are ready to erupt.
Some of them are necessary until a child is 12 years old or longer. Pain, infection of the gums and jaws, impairment of general health and premature loss of teeth are just a few of the problems that can happen when baby teeth are neglected.
Also, because tooth decay is really an infection and will spread, decay on baby teeth can cause decay on permanent teeth. Proper care of baby teeth is instrumental in enhancing your child’s health.
Four things are necessary for cavities to form: a tooth, bacteria, sugars or other carbohydrates and time. Dental plaque is a thin, sticky, colorless deposit of bacteria that constantly forms on everyone's teeth.
When you eat, the sugars in your food cause the bacteria in plaque to produce acids that attack the tooth enamel. With time and repeated acid attacks, the enamel breaks down and a cavity forms.