Our teeth are vital to our overall health — yet many of us don’t understand proper care for teeth and gums. The fact is that our teeth are easy to neglect. As long as we can offer a decent smile, we find it all to easy to put off one cleaning or the next. Sometimes, we become so fearful of the dentist that we even let our teeth begin to look bad cosmetically. This can happen very easily with children in particular. Kids don’t know how to care for their teeth as it is, and quite often they don’t recognize the ramifications of improper tooth care. Proper care for teeth and gums is difficult enough for adults to remember, let alone children. To best understand the importance of dental health, you first need to understand the consequences of neglecting dental care. Let’s look into how to go about dental care, and for that matter how the right pediatric dentist can change your life — and that of your child’s — for the better. Pediatric dentistry in particular needs to be taken very seriously; you shouldn’t expect that your child will get the same dental care from an adult dentist as they would from a pediatric dentist.
The Risks Of Neglecting Proper Care For Teeth And Gums
What do you think the most common childhood disease is? Chances are that you’ll answer asthma, allergies, obesity, or diabetes. These are all good guesses, but according to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, they’re all wrong. In fact, the most common childhood disease is tooth decay. Some brush tooth decay off as a non-serious issue, often through rationalizing that those children will be losing their teeth anyway. This is far from the truth, and unfortunately many children suffer from potentially permanent damage due to the neglect of proper care for teeth and gums. It’s said that only 22% of people claim to floss daily; 75% of people don’t floss as often as they should; and the average amount of time people wait for their next dental appointment is three years. When you take all of these facts into account, it should come as no surprise that 78% of people have at least one cavity by age 17. It’s true that in some cases, cavities are somewhat inevitable — but if you can prevent cavities in your children’s teeth, you should do everything you can to do so. You should make sure that not only do your children brush and floss regularly — make sure that they take fluoride as well, and take any tooth-strengthening supplements that your dentist offers. Luckily, tooth decay can be combatted through fillings and caps, as well as, in cases of extreme decay, dental implants. However, decay is not the only tooth problem that needs to be prevented.
Tooth Damage: The Other Forms You Need To Prevent
Disease and decay are not the only types of damage you need to prevent in teeth. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for children to have teeth “knocked out” in traumatic incidents. Frankly, this is almost more likely to happen children than it is with adults, as children tend to “play hard” without thought of the potential risks and consequences. Children need to be careful, particularly when playing sports. At the same time, you don’t want to prevent them from being active and doing what they love. With 80% of all dental injuries occurring to one of a child’s front teeth, the best way to prevent these injuries is through protective gear. Helmets and mouth guards are two of the top forms of protection. With that being said, if these accidents do happen, you need to go to a dentist as quickly as possible. A tooth can be loose without your knowledge, and the internal damage can be even worse than any external damage. Luckily, a pediatric dentist can treat this issue — and many others — quickly and effectively in most cases.