{"id":340,"date":"2008-05-22T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-22T13:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mominthecity.com\/2008\/05\/22\/pediatric-dental-health-practicals\/"},"modified":"2021-07-08T21:40:53","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T01:40:53","slug":"pediatric-dental-health-practicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mominthecity.com\/pediatric-dental-health-practicals\/","title":{"rendered":"Pediatric Dental Health Practicals"},"content":{"rendered":"

I learned so much from a conversation that I recently had with Dr. Mary Hayes.\u00a0She is a pediatric dentist with a private practice in Chicago along with being an American Dental Association (ADA) spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Initially, we spoke about the barriers to pediatric dental health.\u00a0I thought that finances were the biggest hurdle since many people don\u2019t have dental insurance.\u00a0Although, the doctor agreed that finances were one barrier, she listed social and educational reasons also.\u00a0She noted that many of our expectations come from our parents or grandparents and unfortunately, dental health has not been considered as important as other things.\u00a0Social habits such as not drinking regular water, but sweetened juices (especially for those who come from countries where the water is undrinkable) also contribute to dental decay. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m a practical person, so we then discussed some \u201cbest practices\u201d.\u00a0Some things that I found interesting to note were the following:<\/p>\n

-Kids should have their first dental visit six months after they get their first tooth or at one year old (whichever comes first).\u00a0The purpose of the initial visit is for parents to get an understanding regarding what affects their child\u2019s dental health.\u00a0The goal is for the dentist to be the parent\u2019s coach.\u00a0The best way to find a dentist is by referrals.\u00a0The ADA (http:\/\/www.ada.org\/<\/a>), The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (http:\/\/www.aap.org\/<\/a>) and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD)<\/a> (http:\/\/www.aapd.org\/) all offer referral services on their sites.\u00a0Once a dentist is chosen, the amount of times that the kids need to see the dentist a year depends on the child \u2013 their needs and their risk factors.\u00a0It\u2019s best to make this decision with your dentist.<\/p>\n

-It was interesting to note that parents should brush their kids\u2019 teeth until they are six or seven.\u00a0Until then, kids are just \u201cplaying\u201d when they brush.\u00a0In the desire to make their kids more self-reliant, parents have been allowing kids to brush by themselves earlier which is not the best.\u00a0If kids do insist on brushing their own teeth, they should get the chance only after the adults have brushed first.\u00a0Also, kids should only begin using fluoride toothpaste once they learn to spit (which usually takes place between two and four years old).\u00a0As far as how often kids should brush, the answer was after each meal and before bed \u201cideally\u201d\/two to three times a day at a minimum.<\/p>\n

-When it comes to flossing, kids only need to floss once their teeth start touching together (most young kids have gaps between their teeth).\u00a0Kids are usually able to floss well by the time they are ten to twelve.\u00a0(On a side note, as to the age-old question \u201cIs it better to brush or floss first?\u201d the answer is, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d) <\/p>\n

Dr. Hayes and I then spoke about the overall importance of dental health. We talked about how important it is for problems (i.e. cavities) to be treated in the \u201cbaby teeth\u201d even though those teeth will come out to make place for the permanent teeth.\u00a0One of the main reasons that it is important to treat the baby teeth is that they form the pattern for the permanent teeth. If the baby teeth have a lot of decay, the permanent teeth probably will also.\u00a0In addition, poor dental care may cause a future shift in the permanent teeth which can cause misaligned teeth (making braces necessary) or even impacted teeth.\u00a0Also, infections can possibly happen.\u00a0This causes kids to suffer unnecessary pain.\u00a0As an example of an extreme case, don\u2019t forget the big news story last year about the boy who died from an infection that started with an abscessed tooth when the bacteria from his tooth spread to his brain.\u00a0Dental health should not be taken lightly!\u00a0<\/p>\n

To sum: hygiene (proper dental care with parental supervision); \u201cdentist as coach\u201d and diet (making sure that kids get enough calcium and other vitamins for strong, healthy teeth)\u00a0all combine to give kids the best chance at having beautiful, healthy smiles for a lifetime.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I learned so much from a conversation that I recently had with Dr. Mary Hayes.\u00a0She is a pediatric dentist with a private practice in Chicago along with being an American Dental Association (ADA) spokesperson. Initially, we spoke about the barriers … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPediatric Dental Health Practicals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mominthecity.com\/pediatric-dental-health-practicals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pediatric Dental Health Practicals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I learned so much from a conversation that I recently had with Dr. Mary Hayes.\u00a0She is a pediatric dentist with a private practice in Chicago along with being an American Dental Association (ADA) spokesperson. 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