Kids Dentist in Surat
& Baby Teeth Matters!
Oral health is important, especially in children. Your baby's teeth play an important role in their growth and development. They are responsible for saving space for their permanent teeth and are important for proper jaw development. Therefore it is important to take proper care of them.
Visiting the dentist can trigger anxiety or stress of unfamiliar procedures in children, and they dread the experience enough to panic when they arrive. To help child patients cope with their anxieties, Nxtdent Dental Clinic provides laughing gas dentistry to make the procedures comfortable and to assist patients with compliance.
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) recognizes nitrous oxide/oxygen inhalation as a safe and effective technique to reduce anxiety, produce analgesia, and enhance effective communication between a patient and health care provider. Nitrous oxide produces a relaxing effect without causing the child to fall asleep.
4 Most Important Ages for Kids to Visit the Dentist
Your child's first dental appointment should be when they get their first tooth or when they turn 1, whichever happens first. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends children make their first visit to the dentist by no later than age 1 to establish a foundation for their dental care. During your child's first dental appointment, your dentist will perform a full exam which will include checking the gums, jaw, bite, and oral tissue. This dental visit allows parents to address their child’s oral health in a number of areas:
- Management of oral habits such as finger and thumb sucking
- Teething
- Assessment of first teeth
- The connection between diet and oral health
- Development of gums and jawline
- How to care for an infant’s or toddler’s dental health
Your baby’s first dental visit is the foundation for life-long dental health. Make sure you write down any important questions you have for the paediatric dentist and follow up about the next appointment.
Unless there are signs of tooth decay, or other problems with your baby’s teeth, schedule your child a dental checkup at age 4. “children can get cavities as soon as their teeth first appear. Nearly one in four children ages 2–5 has cavities in their baby teeth. Cavities can hurt. Cavities also can cause children to have problems eating, speaking, learning, playing, and sleeping” So it’s good to pay attention in these first few years. Age 4 represents a critical age for a child to correct bad oral habits such as sucking or chewing on fingers and thumbs. And with an age 4 dental visit, dentists can reinforce strategies to help young children overcome these bad habits quickly and effectively.
By age 7, a child’s first molars erupt, resulting in a backbite. This enables dentists to properly evaluate the front-to-back and side-to-side relationships between a child’s teeth and identify potential future dental problems and enough time to create a plan to solve those issues.
Age 7 is the perfect age for the dental visit. “By that age, a child will have a mix of baby and permanent teeth, and the dentist will be able to recognize alignment issues - “malocclusions” even in their earliest stages.” At this age, many of their jaw discrepancies and corrections in the breathing passage can be possible which otherwise need surgery at a later stage. Most children who need orthodontic intervention typically receive between ages 9 and 14, though some situations may necessitate a different timeframe.
To recap… at what age should a child go to the dentist? To ensure your child has the best dental care, they will need to see the dentist at ages 1 and 4. They will want to see the dentist AND orthodontist at age 7.
Frequently Asked Questions
The earlier you start teaching your kids about oral health and start introducing a good oral routine in their daily life, the easier it is to form good oral habits and stay away from the bad ones.
- For feeding babies, clean their gums after every feed.
- For toddlers make sure to avoid putting them to sleep with a bottle or giving juice, milk or sweets before bed. Start brushing and flossing at an early age. This will help keep their teeth healthy.
Visiting a dentist at ages 1, 4, 7 and 11 is the best way to ensure better oral health for the future.
Yes, X-rays are absolutely safe for children. The amount of exposure to the radiation is very low and for a very short duration.
Whether your child needs braces or not depends on the condition of your child’s teeth. If your child has misaligned teeth, overcrowded teeth or has an issue with bite, braces treatment will be recommended by your dentist.
It is quite a given for you to think that there is no need to save your child's milk teeth as they will eventually fall. But the child's primary teeth play an important role in saving the space for their permanent teeth. If the milk teeth fall before time, there might not be enough space for the permanent teeth and can cause issues with jaw development. Therefore your dentist can recommend root canal treatment to save your child's natural teeth.
Talk to your child about their dental procedure in a funny manner before the appointment. You should talk about it even if it's a simple checkup, especially before a more significant procedure. Then, answer your child's questions honestly. Describe the process in easy-to-understand terms and comforting language. You can search for images online of the dentist's office, look at the dental chair, the overhead light, and some of the equipment. You can also tell funny dental stories to keep their fear away.
You can also talk with your child about a reward they receive after their appointments, like a toy or game, so they have something to look forward to. Other ways to relieve dental anxiety in children include:
- Never using dental treatment as a threat to encourage oral hygiene
- Bringing a toy or comfort blanket with your child to the dental appointment
- Finding stories or games about visiting the dentist
- Finding a specialised dentist that trained to deal with anxious patients
- Finding a specialised dental clinic that uses laughing gas dentistry to make appointments easy for your kids.