Pediatric Dental

About Our Team

All of our clinical staff members are licensed in radiology, infection control and jurisprudence. Most importantly they all love kids and are experts in guiding children through the dental experience.

About Our TeamYour Child’s First Dental Visit

Many children are unsure about their first dental visit, but they don’t have to be. Our clinical staff members facilities are custom-designed to spark excitement about the dentist’s office.

Primary teeth are important for many reasons. Not only do they help children speak clearly and chew naturally, they also aid in forming a path that permanent teeth can follow when they are ready to erupt. In fact, healthy baby teeth are just as essential to infants and young kids as healthy permanent teeth are to older kids and adults.

Visiting The Dentist Early

Usually, primary teeth begin to erupt somewhere between the age of 6 months and 1 year. The American Dental Association (ADA) advises that children receive their first examination from a dentist preferably within 6 months of the appearance of the first tooth and no later than the first birthday. A visit to the dentist this early is known as a “well-baby checkup.” The dentist will examine the child for any tooth decay or other problems, can explain the proper way of brushing the child’s teeth, and will advise the parent on any negatively impacting habits the child may have formed, such as going to sleep with a bottle or thumb sucking. By 3 years old, the majority of children have a full set of 20 baby teeth.

Preventive Care

Oral hygiene practices change and increase with age so here are some tips to caring for your child’s dental heath from birth through toddlerhood.

Birth to 6 months

• Dental hygiene begins at birth. Implementing healthy habits from the start can make all the difference in reducing and preventing tooth decay in infants and kids.
• Clean an infant’s gums lightly after every feeding with a moistened washcloth or damp clean gauze pad. Never put a baby to sleep with a bottle, prop a bottle in a baby’s mouth, or let a baby feed “at will.”
• Because dental decay is a communicable and infectious disease, try not to ever test the temperature of a bottle with your mouth.
• Also keep from sharing utensils or washing a pacifier or bottle nipple by putting it in your mouth. Sticking to these practices helps stop the spreading of bacterium that generate tooth decay.

6-12 months

• Usually the first tooth erupts through the gums between 6 and 8 months of age. Practicing increased healthy habits from the moment teeth begin to appear, once again, reduces and prevents the chance for tooth decay.
• After feeding, continue to clean the infant’s gums with a wet washcloth or clean damp gauze pad.
• Once a tooth becomes visible, transition to using a soft bristled toothbrush with no toothpaste, while also making sure to massage the gum tissues.
• As the infant begins to eat more solid foods and is able to drink from a cup, start weaning the baby from the bottle one step at a time. Usually by 12 to 14 months, babies can drink from a cup, so it is a good idea to start slowly offering them cups of water or juice instead of a bottle at that time.
• At this point, do not allow the baby to walk around carrying his/her bottle, and practice healthy habits by restricting the amount of sweet food and beverages the child consumes.
• It is also important to know what the normal appearance of a child’s gums and teeth look like. Regularly check for new small white or brown spots on the child’s teeth, which may indicate tooth decay. If any questionable or strange looking spots of this sort appear, contact the dentist for an appointment immediately.
• Schedule the child’s first dental appointment at this stage, as it is recommended for a child to be examined by a dentist no later than the first birthday. Also, if the drinking water of the household is not fluoridated, it is a good idea to ask the dentist and pediatrician about infant fluoride supplements.

12-18 months

By one year of age, a child should undergo an oral examination by a dentist. At this stage, brush a child’s teeth for them twice a day with plain water. Keep checking regularly for suspicious white or brown spots on the teeth, which can denote tooth decay, and make an appointment with the dentist immediately if any such spot are noticed. Also continue to avoid spreading decay causing germs to the child by refraining from any practices that might transmit saliva, such as drink sharing.

18 months-5 years

• At 24 months, start brushing the child’s teeth twice a day with a pea-sized amount of fluoridated toothpaste.
• Make sure that the child does not swallow any of the toothpaste, and teach him/her to spit all of it out after brushing. Begin teaching the child how to brush his/her own teeth, but typically children need help until they possess the hand coordination to sufficiently brush their own teeth.
• Children should be capable of brushing without supervision around age 6 or 7. By 30 months, most of the primary (baby) teeth should be in, and by 3 years old toddlers should no longer be using their pacifiers and/or sucking their thumbs. If a child is over the age of 3 and regularly still uses a pacifier or sucks his/her thumb consult the dentist.
• At this point, the child should be visiting the dentist for regular checkups. Also remember to continue to check for suspicious white or brown spots on the teeth, which may indicate tooth decay. Anytime uncharacteristic or suspicious spots appear in a child’s mouth, the dentist should be contacted.

Why Baby Teeth are important?

Primary or baby teeth are important for many reasons. Not only do they help children speak clearly and chew naturally, they also aid in forming a path that permanent teeth can follow when they are ready to erupt.

Primary, or baby teeth, hold the space in the jaws that is required for the correct development of adult (permanent) teeth. Typically, under the healthiest circumstances, a baby tooth stays in the child’s mouth until the permanent tooth underneath is about to surface through the gums.

When the permanent tooth is ready to emerge, the roots of the primary tooth break down or disintegrate, and the baby tooth gets loose and falls out. Usually, the permanent tooth then starts coming in a few weeks later.

How to treat a complete tooth avulsion (knocked-out tooth?

1. Rinse the tooth with water (not soap), taking care to only touch the crown of the tooth
2. Method 1: Place tooth in a bag of salt water or milk and place over ice
3. Method 2: Place tooth in a cup of milk
4. Call us immediately. If you act quickly it’s possible to save the tooth

Losing a baby tooth too early, before the adult tooth is ready to emerge, can cause major spatial problems for permanent teeth, unless specific action is taken. If a baby tooth falls out too early naturally, is knocked out accidentally, or must be extracted by the dentist due to decay or other disease, the space where that tooth is lost must be preserved.