As you grow up, you realize that there is more to dental care than you initially thought. For one, the field of dentistry is wide, capturing different specialties, including restorative dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, orthodontics, endodontics, and pediatric dental care. Each of the specialties is unique in its own way. When it comes to pediatric dentistry the services offered are far different from those in other specialties.
What is Pediatric Dentistry?
It is an arm of dentistry that focuses on offering dental care services to children. A pediatric dentist in Carlsbad, CA has specialized in children’s teeth. They have mastered the different developmental and growth stages of children’s teeth. There is no one better placed to take care of your child’s teeth than a dentist for children near you.
Any pediatric dentist near you is fully dedicated to dental health care of children ranging from infancy through to the teen years. Children need dental care as much as adults, if not more. Since their bodies are still growing, there is a lot to anticipate the growth and development of their teeth.
As your child grows up, the different teeth stages can pose lifetime problems if not properly handled. A great example is how early childhood dental caries are now a big tragedy for children, with the statistics of a 5 times higher likelihood of occurring than asthma for kids.
What Types of Treatments Do Pediatric Dentists Provide?
Any dental health concerns that you have about your child’s teeth can be handled by a pediatric dentist. Even then it helps to know about the specific solutions that pediatric dental care offers for children. Some of them include:
- Oral health exams – in the same way, you keep up with clinic visits for the overall health of your child, at infancy, consider also oral health exams. They help ascertain that the development of your child’s mouth is not compromised. This involves checking the gums and jawbone of your child as much as the teeth.
- Preventive dental care – children need preventive dental care, perhaps more than all other people. Every stage of their life involves a change in their dental orientation. Besides that, children are not the best at taking care of their teeth, even with minor practices like regular teeth brushing and flossing. Preventive dental care services include dental sealants, fluoride treatments, nutrition, and diet recommendations, to mention a few.
- Early assessment and treatment – any underlying dental condition can better be detected if your child is religious with regular pediatric dental care. Anything could be wrong with the teeth, gums, bones, and even temporomandibular joint of your child early detection and assessment are the best for ensuring these problems don’t progress and worsen.
- Habit counseling – there is so much to teach your child as early as infancy. However, some habits are bad and need to be broken as early as possible. Such include thumb sucking, pacifier use, teeth grinding, and face clenching, to mention a few. These habits can be broken without the help of an expert on children’s oral health. Allowing a pediatric dentist to intervene to ensure that the bad habits are broken, but better yet, that they are traded for healthy habits.
- Diagnosis of oral conditions and everything else related – did you know that the mouth can be used to diagnose more problems than those directly affecting teeth? Diseases ranging from diabetes, congenital heart defect, and asthma, to hay fever, and attention deficit or hyperactivity disorder, can be diagnosed by a pediatric dentist.
- Orthodontics – children are the top beneficiaries of orthodontics. As their teeth grow and develop, orthodontics can intervene to ensure the perfect alignment of the teeth. This is especially so when the permanent set of teeth starts growing. The earlier you can detect any anomalies in how teeth sit on the jawbone, the easier it is to correct them before damage has severely been done.
- Oral hygiene tips and recommendations – there is no one better to teach your child on oral hygiene practices than a pediatric dentist or even a dental hygienist. You may never have to battle with your child in matters of cleaning teeth if you are disciplined with pediatric dental care.
