Family Dentistry
General Care
We encourage early dental screening and cleaning, with a dental checkup as soon as their first teeth start to come in. This early general care not only gets them accustomed to going to the dentist, it lets us see if there are any potential problems such as bite, developmental or orthodontic issues.
If your kids do need dental repairs, we use the same conservative, tooth preserving methods we use for our adult patients – tailored, of course, to your child’s specific dental needs. We never repair teeth with metal so that their smiles look completely natural.
Sealants
We recommend that all children receive dental sealants. Bonding a special resin sealant to teeth covers grooves and makes tooth surfaces smoother and easier to clean. This is especially important for young children who sometimes have difficulty with the effectiveness of their brushing and flossing. Sealants help prevent bacteria buildup tin the grooves and fissures of teeth and can effectively prevent tooth decay.
Fluoride
Kids drink a lot of acid beverages such as juices, and often eat a lot of sugary foods. These substances are known to break down and damage enamel. If your child grinds her teeth in her sleep or fails to brush as well as she should at times, this also contributes to enamel breakdown.
Fluoride treatments not only help protect children’s teeth, these treatments can help reverse the damage as well. Fluoride’s remineralization process helps stop the progress of newly formed cavities and even helps reduce the frequency of root caries. Fluoride can, in fact, be incorporated into the development of permanent teeth when it is administered to children under the age of six.
