From the children dentist to a family dentist to a dentist who specializes in adult care, there are certainly many types of dental professionals out there in the world and even just within the United States. It only makes sense, after all, as your oral hygiene and overall dental care is so hugely important indeed. In fact, it is so important that it should begin very early on in life – perhaps earlier than most people actually realize.
For instance, you should start caring for your baby’s teeth as soon as they pop through the gums. On average, this is something that will occur at about six months of age, but for some babies it will happen even earlier – and for some even later, for that matter. At the start, simply wiping down your baby’s gums and first buds of teeth with a wet wash cloth is sufficient, but you will eventually want to graduate to a toothbrush, sized for a child, and toothpaste, if only just to get them used to using it. However, it is ideal to avoid toothpaste with fluoride in it until they have reached about two years of age, at which point fluoride is typically able to be introduced.
Taking your child to a children dentist found at a local pediatric dentist office is essential as well, and pediatric dental care should begin around the child’s first birthday – and certainly no later than their second. After all, the baby teeth might fall out and be replaced by adult ones, but the quality and care of baby teeth in the early years of your child’s life can actually end up having a direct impact on the overall quality and health of their adult teeth as well, something that any children dentist in this country will quite readily attest to.
Unfortunately, far too few children are getting the dental care that they need, let alone at the hands of a skilled children dentist who can most accurately and fully perform a pediatric dental exam. For while ideally a child will be taken in to see a children dentist at least once throughout the year if not twice, a full 20% of all children are not getting dental care as it is needed. As a result, their teeth are suffering, with data showing that nearly half of all kids will have had at least one cavity by the time that they reach their school years, if not even more than one by the point of joining a kindergarten class.
In fact, tooth decay has become, among children, even more common than conditions like diabetes and asthma. And around 19% of all children in this one country alone are living with at least one untreated cavity, according to research that was done by the CDC. The toll this takes can be a significant one, leading to serious levels of dental pain that can even impede children in succeeding in ways that they would otherwise be capable of. The data that has been gathered on the subject more than backs up this claim, as it quite clearly shows that kids with dental health problems such as tooth decay are actually up to three times more likely to miss school because their poor oral health has lead to pain. As any children dentist can attest to, this is something that is not necessary and hugely detrimental to the child in question.
The average children dentist will also be able to perform a number of preventative pediatric dental treatments that will help to ensure the overall health of your child’s teeth for a great many years to come. Fluoride treatments are quite common in many children dentist offices, and the application of a fluoride varnish can even reduce as much as one third of the decay that the baby teeth of the child in question would otherwise be susceptible to, no matter how well cared for those teeth might be on the whole.
At the end of the day, taking your child to the dentist is an absolute must. So too is teaching them to take care of their teeth, a habit that will last throughout their lives.
