If you are the parent of a young toddler, you may feel that it is too early for a dental visit, even though your little one already has his or her first teeth. However, there are valid reasons for visits to a pediatric dentist soon after your child's first teeth erupt. Here are a few of them:
Decay in primary teeth can damage permanent teeth.
Primary teeth can develop cavities just as permanent teeth can. However, decay can actually pass from a baby tooth to an underlying adult tooth, sabotaging your child's long-term dental health.
As your child drinks from a bottle or sippy cup, his or her teeth are exposed to the natural sugars in the milk or juice that the bottle or cup contains. These sugars coat the teeth and serve as food for oral bacteria. As the bacteria consume the sugar, they release acid that eats away at your little one's tooth enamel to cause decay. Once the decay breaches the dentin layer of a tooth, oral bacteria have access to the pulp, which includes the nerves and blood vessels of the tooth. Not only does this level of decay cause your little one discomfort, but it also makes it easy for the decay to transfer to underlying structures beneath your child's gums, such as the permanent teeth.
Early dental visits can detect decay and treat it effectively before it progresses. Your child's dentist can treat a small to moderate cavity with a filling alone. However, larger cavities may require a stainless steel crown for greater protection and fortification of the tooth structure. Nevertheless, if you wait too long to have your child's teeth treated, an extraction may be the only option.
Missing primary teeth can cause dental misalignment.
Primary teeth serve as placeholders for the adult teeth that will eventually emerge. They also prevent adjacent primary teeth from shifting from position. If teeth are lost early due to decay, adult teeth may not have the proper guidance to emerge in a straight formation.
Your child's loses his or her final primary teeth around the preteen years, so the baby teeth remain in place for years. If they are lost early, your child may eventually require braces to correct a resulting misalignment.
To learn more reasons that your child should receive early dental care from a pediatric dentist, schedule a consultation with a child's dentist, such as those found at Beck Pearce Dental, in your local area.
