There are many reasons that worsen the condition of the oral cavity and teeth in children: poor hygiene, unlimited consumption of sweets, insufficient intake of vitamins. Against the background of these reasons, immunity decreases and the risk of oral diseases increases.
Main dental diseases in children
The first year of a child’s life can also present surprises to parents in the form of oral diseases. Most often, these are injuries to the oral mucosa, which still has a very delicate structure that can be easily damaged even by a soft pacifier. There is also a danger of developing fungal diseases or the appearance of herpetic stomatitis, sometimes even recurrent.
Gingivitis in children
Also common in children is a disease called gingivitis, which is characterized by the presence of an inflammatory process in the gum tissue. The main symptoms of gingivitis are bleeding of the gum tissue, pain when brushing, swelling, redness of the dental papillae, gums, cyanosis of the gums, which occurs when the disease becomes chronic, and accumulation of plaque.
The main factor in the development of gingivitis is poor hygiene, which leads to the formation of a significant amount of deposits on the enamel near the gums.
Caries
With the appearance of the first teeth, the most common disease is caries, which develops much faster at an early age than in adults. If you do not pay attention to it, untreated caries can provoke complications such as: pulpitis, periostitis and periodontitis, and they are serious diseases that require serious treatment. However, caries in children can be treated quickly and almost painlessly, and as we know, any disease is easier to prevent.
To maintain dental health in children, it is important for parents to pay attention to the following points:
- teach your child to maintain oral hygiene;
- monitor your diet, make it balanced, reduce the amount of sweets;
- Monitor the condition of the child’s teeth, contact a specialist at the first symptoms of caries.
Caries in children
Caries is widespread among young patients. It can occur at any age from the time teeth appear. The main specificity of childhood caries is the rapid rate of its development. Enamel and dentin in children have a special structure and small volumes, so caries develops rapidly and can affect several areas of one tooth and different groups of teeth.
The main manifestations of childhood caries are changes in the color of the enamel, the formation of darkening, carious cavities, and pain when exposed to temperature stimuli. Possible refusal to eat or brush teeth.
Thrush
With thrush, white spots first appear on the palate, tongue, cheeks, and lips on the inside, then they merge, forming a solid white coating. The disease is caused by yeast-like fungi, which, under the influence of unfavorable factors, exhibit their pathogenic effects. It is necessary to consult a doctor to eliminate the cause of the disease.
Dental clinic "Sanident" offers a wide range of dental services to preserve and maintain healthy baby teeth. If necessary, our highly qualified specialists provide consultations and carry out preventive measures to care for the child’s oral cavity. In our practice, we use only high-quality filling materials and find an individual approach to each little patient.
Dental clinic "Sanident" is located at the following addresses:
- Shchelkovo, st. Tsentralnaya, 80 (railway station Voronok);
- Ivanteevka, st. Novoselki, 4 (Ivanteevka railway station).
Malocclusion in children
Bite defects not only reduce the aesthetics of the smile of young patients, but also significantly complicate their lives in the future. They can lead to the formation of diseases of the intestines, stomach, respiratory tract, and improper formation of the maxillofacial bones. Defects in the development of bite should be determined at an appointment with an orthodontist. If the baby has teeth moving back and forward, there is a non-standard positioning of the jaws when closing, there are teeth rotated around their axis, interdental spaces, uneven rows, all this indicates the need for treatment.
Treatment of malocclusions should begin as early as possible, preferably in the temporary dentition.
How to prevent dental diseases in children?
Unlike adults, caries develops in children almost asymptomatically, without causing discomfort. However, small children sometimes complain of pain in their teeth. What does this mean and what to do if a child has a toothache? Firstly, this may already be a sign of pulpitis or periodontitis. Secondly, it is necessary to visit a pediatric dentist at the first, even the most minor, complaints of the child. However, following the recommendations of doctors will help you avoid many problems:
- Parents should regularly examine the child’s oral cavity to see if the enamel has darkened, if the gums have changed color, and if there is too much plaque on the teeth.
- Prepare your diet correctly. Limiting sweets, add more vegetables and fruits. While eating, you should pay attention to how the baby chews food: if he always chews on one side, he needs to be examined by a dentist.
- Properly organize oral care. The brushes should be attractive and soft, and the toothpaste should be safe and pleasant to the taste.
- If a child has teeth grinding, you should immediately consult a doctor in order to stop the disease at the initial stage. Otherwise, this can lead to high tooth sensitivity, caries and related complications.
- In addition to home examinations, professional examinations by a pediatric dentist are mandatory.
- Examinations and treatment of a child’s baby teeth should be performed by a pediatric dentist. Such a doctor must be not only a good specialist, but also a psychologist who knows how to find the right approach to a small patient. This will help in the future to avoid the fear of the dental chair, which is typical even for many adults.
dental treatment for children, a pediatric dentist carries out preventive measures for healthy children:
- seals the fissures of chewing teeth;
- coats teeth with fluoride varnish to protect enamel;
- professionally brushes teeth.
In addition, the doctor advises parents on how to take care of their child’s oral cavity, and tells children how to brush their teeth. As soon as the first teeth appear, you need to clean your mouth every day with rubber finger brushes. Toothpaste is used for care when the child is one to one and a half years old.
Dentists have a good way to check how accurately you follow their recommendations: checking with a special coloring composition helps detect plaque on your baby’s teeth.
The time will come for baby teeth to fall out anyway...
Having learned after a visit to the doctor why the child’s teeth hurt, parents are often in no hurry to treat baby teeth, believing that the time will come for them to fall out anyway, but when the permanent teeth grow, they must be carefully monitored. This is a rather dangerous misconception that can lead to a deterioration in the child’s health, because the body is an integral system where everything is interconnected, and dental problems can become a “trigger” for many other diseases. At the same time, diseased baby teeth can lead to the development of pathologies in permanent teeth.
If baby teeth are not treated on time and they are significantly damaged, they should be removed. The resulting void in the dentition can cause problems with bite. In this case, they resort to installing orthodontic plates, and at the age of 10-12 years, braces are installed. If the incisors are removed, problems may arise with the pronunciation of individual sounds, in which case you will have to contact a speech therapist. So it is better to avoid troubles than to deal with them later; in this matter, the best solution is prevention.
In addition, acute toothache and a visit to the dentist in this case will become stressful for the child. Sedation or general anesthesia is often required.
Why is it important to minimize cariogenic factors?
Minimizing risk factors for caries is especially important in children, because firstly, at this age there is a tendency to rapid destruction of hard dental tissues, which leads to complications of caries. Secondly, the presence of carious defects in baby teeth can lead to damage to the rudiments of permanent teeth, which in the future will affect the appearance of the teeth, the functional activity of the dental system and can lead to disruption of the functioning of vital organs and systems of the whole body.
Thus, early diagnosis and minimization of risk factors for caries will not only help preserve baby teeth, but will also be a good investment in the health of your child’s permanent teeth.
Toothache in children
You should not think that baby teeth don’t hurt. Problems can arise even before birth if the expectant mother suffered an infectious disease in the first 12 weeks, which led to pathology in the development of tooth buds. However, even with normal tooth development, there is no guarantee that caries will not develop. Baby teeth are easily affected, and the disease is transmitted to neighboring teeth. Caries progresses very quickly, complications appear (pulpitis, periodontitis), so even at such an early age it is necessary to carry out dental treatment in children.
At five to seven years old, the first molars appear - the sixth chewing teeth, and they can also turn out to be problematic. The chewing surface of molars has deep crevices in the enamel, where the most favorable conditions for reproduction are created for microorganisms. The products of their vital activity become the determining factor for the development of carious processes.
In addition, the vast majority of young children are very fond of sweets, which further aggravates the situation: holding candy in the mouth for a long time or chewing gum with sugar lead to the constant presence of sugar in the oral cavity.
Hygienic procedures are also difficult to carry out: children generally do not like to brush their teeth even with the most “delicious” toothpaste. In addition, it is not easy for a small child to handle a toothbrush, let alone floss. Children, as a rule, are also not given mouthwashes.
Is caries prevention necessary in childhood?
The task of parents is to keep their child’s smile healthy and beautiful, as well as to develop the habit of regularly visiting the dentist and not being afraid.
Prevention is also possible at home
- After the birth of a child, pay attention to oral hygiene; even at an early age, so-called bottle caries can appear.
- Choose your child's diet wisely. It must include dairy products, fish and fruits.
- Toothpaste should be enriched with fluoride.
- Parents need to control the amount of sweets and starchy foods.
- Make sure your child brushes his teeth 2 times a day.
In addition to prevention at home, it is necessary to be examined by a pediatric dentist twice a year. After all, an undetected disease develops into a complex form in time, which will bring a lot of stress, trouble and pain to your child.
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How is baby teeth treated?
Getting your child to go to the doctor is sometimes quite difficult, especially if the tooth already hurts and you have not brought your child for preventive examinations before. However, this must be done in order to preserve not only the tooth, but the health of the child. The doctors of the Stars Dental clinic are excellent psychologists who will find an approach to any small patient.
How is caries treated?
Caries affects the tooth enamel and then spreads to the inner dentin. The procedure for removing inflamed tissue is necessarily carried out under local anesthesia using safe anesthetics that do not contain dyes or toxic substances. The stages will be as follows:
- administration of anesthesia: this is an injection, but to reduce pain, application anesthesia can be used, which is applied to the gum - thus the place where the needle is inserted into the mucous membrane is not felt,
- drilling out the carious cavity to remove all inflamed tissue,
- antibacterial treatment and drying of the cavity,
- applying a protective gasket and installing a composite filling.
Caries and pulpitis of baby teeth: causes
It is a big misconception to believe that baby teeth do not need treatment. In addition to the fact that your baby will be haunted by pain due to carious lesions and will not be able to fully chew food, aesthetic problems will also arise after tooth extraction. But the most important thing is that by ignoring the baby’s dental problems, his parents directly influence his future bite and the correct formation of the entire dental system. That is, if a baby tooth is removed too early, the permanent one is very likely to grow abnormally.
How does it happen that even a very small person develops a number of serious dental problems? The reasons may be different:
- lack of hygiene: if you don’t brush your teeth, plaque will accumulate on them. It is this that leads to the gradual destruction of teeth, so the most basic reason for the development of caries is precisely ignoring daily tooth brushing,
- the baby is fond of sweets: everyone knows that children are big lovers of sweets, but they are in no hurry to brush their teeth after eating sweets and lollipops, and parents, in general, do not always insist on oral hygiene. This is how the process of enamel destruction begins,
- Oral infection: caries is caused by pathogenic bacteria. Their number increases noticeably when the baby puts dirty objects into his mouth. By the way, if a mother licks her child’s spoon before feeding, this also leads to the predominance of pathogenic microflora in the mouth, which increases the risk of developing caries,
- Genetics is to blame for everything: it is believed that a predisposition to oral diseases can be inherited. The baby can get the structure and strength of enamel and dentin from mom or dad,
- lack of calcium: the rudiments of teeth are formed directly in the fetus, so it is worth thinking about the baby’s teeth even during pregnancy. The expectant mother needs to eat well and take vitamin complexes,
- lack of vitamins: after birth, the baby’s food must be rich in minerals, calcium and phosphorus for the full development and formation of bone structure,
- bad habits: sucking on a bottle of formula, milk or juice at night.
How is dental treatment performed for children at the Gorod clinic?
The dentists at the Gorod clinic approach dental treatment for children very responsibly. We need to find an individual approach to each little patient so that the examination goes smoothly.
At the first appointment, a child can only be frightened by an unfamiliar environment and new people. But dentists will do everything to ensure that the child is not afraid. In addition, the clinic provides painless dental treatment for children.
- Treatment without a drill. A unique method that does not use a device that frightens not only children, but also adults. A special composition is applied to the tooth, which dissolves caries. Dead tissue is manually removed by the dentist.
- If the infection has penetrated too deeply and serious intervention is necessary, then anesthesia is used. First, the gum is lubricated with a gel that freezes the tissue for painless insertion of the needle.
- Treatment under anesthesia. If long-term dental treatment is necessary, it is best to use anesthesia. The child will not be afraid of the doctor or interfere during treatment, thus the process will be quick and painless.
Stages of treatment at the Gorod clinic:
- Examination by a dentist.
- Use anesthesia if necessary.
- Cleaning the tooth from dead tissue.
- Filling.
How can you tell if your child has a toothache?
Dental diseases in children differ from those in adults in that there is no pain at the early stage of infection. And the process of infection spreading occurs much faster, because the enamel is thin and the tooth’s resistance to disease is low. Symptoms of dental disease in children:
- First, pay attention to the enamel of your teeth. If yellow or gray spots appear, this is the first sign to consult a dentist. He will conduct an initial examination and may find cavities that are not visible at home.
- If the child cannot calmly eat sour and sweet foods.
- Painful sensations from hot and cold water. Usually this is the stage of deep caries, in which destruction is clearly visible on the surface of the tooth.
- Tooth pain while eating.
- Fever, nausea and general weakness.
Don't be afraid to take your child to the dentist at an early age. If you carry out a preventive examination and follow the doctor’s instructions, then the baby will get used to such visits and in the future he will not have painful associations and a bad mood when mentioning the dental office.
