Learning proper oral hygiene habits helps set your child up for a lifetime of healthy smiles. That’s why we suggest bringing your little one to dental checkups on a routine basis. At each visit, we will clean your child’s smile and perform an examination that creates an ongoing dental record. By documenting the appearance of their oral structures, we can quickly identify when active threats arise that require immediate treatment. While daily brushing and flossing will help prevent cavities from forming in your child’s smile, they may still receive a cavity. By inspecting their grin, we can provide a more conservative treatment before the damage of decay destroys a significant amount of healthy tissue. Depending on the size of the cavity, we could place a filling or dental crown that restores the bite’s function and appearance. Maintaining a healthy bite is critical during this stage as your child’s jaw is still growing.

At your Shirley, NY, pediatric dentist and orthodontist, we look forward to taking care of your little one’s oral health. We encourage a preventive attitude toward oral hygiene that reduces the risk of tooth decay, gum disease, and other common issues. When prevention fails, regular examination of your child’s smile can lead to quick relief. In today’s blog, we explore the cause of tooth decay and the treatments we offer to fight it.

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When your little one wakes up with a toothache that will not go away, it can be difficult to offer them relief. As a parent, you never want to see your child hurt, but an aching tooth can rage on for days. By scheduling an appointment with your dentist right away, we can perform an exam to determine the nature of their pain. This is a common symptom of a dangerous infection that without treatment risks spreading to other parts of the body. If we detect foreign material within the tooth’s pulp chamber, we can propose an alternative to root canal therapy that preserves a healthy pulp structure. A pulpotomy uses special tools to enter the inner chamber and remove decaying material. By taking advantage of local anesthetics, the procedure is no more uncomfortable than a standard dental filling. Because this treatment permanently alters the structure of the tooth, we place a dental crown to preserve your child’s bite.

At your Shirley, NY pediatric dentist and orthodontist, we are standing by to answer the call in your time of need. That is why we offer emergency visits outside of your child’s standard checkup schedule to treat oral threats that cannot wait. While a standard cavity may be taken care of during cleaning and exam, a tooth infection can become much worse the longer it takes to receive treatment. We recommend against simply pulling your young one’s tooth, as they require each member of their smile to allow their jaw to grow fully formed.

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When you make your child’s oral health a priority, you teach them the skills necessary to enjoy a lifetime of beautiful smiles. Sticking to a semiannual checkup and cleaning schedule provides a professional evaluation of your little one’s teeth, gums, and other structures. We create a dental record that can quickly identify when any sudden changes appear in their mouth. By visiting regularly, we can answer any questions your kid has about taking care of their teeth, and provide instruction on brushing and flossing techniques. Little ones are still developing the dexterity necessary to successfully fight tooth decay, so we provide additional services beyond those offered to adults as well. Fluoride treatments and dental sealants can protect their enamel as they learn to more effectively clean their smiles.

At your Shirley, NY, pediatric dentist and orthodontist, we look forward to meeting your child and servicing their smiles each year. We stress the importance of a preventive attitude toward oral health. This means bringing your child in regularly instead of waiting for threats to appear. By preventing decay and disease in the first place, your child enjoys a healthy, natural smile without the need for additional restorative treatments. However, routine examinations can detect threats early, leading to a more conservative solution.

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Teaching your child healthy oral hygiene habits requires regular trips to the dentist. At your little one’s semiannual visits, we can provide a professional cleaning and examination of their oral structures since their last visit. This meeting provides an opportunity to review their at-home brushing and flossing techniques and answer any questions they have about their smiles. While we promote a preventive attitude toward protecting your child’s teeth, we take swift action when we discover an active threat. If we discover a cavity beginning to form in your little one’s smile, we will suggest removing decaying material right away and placing the appropriate restoration. The health of each tooth is critical to providing a full bite as your child’s jaw grows, and we want each baby tooth to stay in its rightful place until the natural time to fall out. That is why we place dental fillings instead of extracting teeth to handle decay at this age.

At your Shirley, NY, pediatric dentist and orthodontist, we consider our work a blessing. By meeting with young children each day, we help teach them the skills to enjoy a lifetime of healthy smiles. Because kids are still mastering the dexterity required to reach the entire surface of each tooth, we provide additional services to protect against decay such as dental sealants and fluoride treatments. While this can help reduce the likelihood of tooth decay, it is not uncommon for a child to experience a cavity at some point.

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When it comes to caring for your child’s smile, preventing tooth decay is the name of the game. From their first checkup, we discuss strategies to protect against cavities to preserve their healthy smiles. But what happens when we detect a carry in your little one’s mouth? While children’s teeth are not permanent, each one plays a vital role in supporting a healthy bite as their jaw and other oral structures continue to grow. That is why we remove decaying material and place restorations to protect these teeth until it is time for them to naturally fall out. Extracting a child’s tooth to treat a cavity may cause serious complications with their development. Therefore, we avoid this method unless necessary.

At your Shirley, NY pediatric dentist and orthodontist, we care for young children’s smiles with preventive and restorative services. This means teaching the skills necessary to protect teeth at home in addition to the professional care we provide in our office. By attending regular dental checkups, we can discover active threats such as cavities early in their development and provide a conservative treatment. This prevents the need for a more involved treatment while helping your child retain a smile they can be proud of!

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As your child grows into their smile, it is important to make sure that they understand the value of maintaining their oral health on a consistent basis. If you are a parent, then you know that this can be a very difficult task. They simply do not yet have the life experiences to understand the consequences of going light on their dental hygiene. If they are struggling with their brushing and flossing, take the time to meet with a caring pediatric dentist for some dental education.

With our team of children’s dental experts in Shirley, NY, you can give your child the tools that they need to be successful in their oral health maintenance. Sometimes, they just need a little help, and a visit with a knowledgeable outside authority figure can do just that. If your little one has started to grow tired of their dental maintenance, we are here to help them to learn so that they can renew their dedication. Bring them in for a cleaning and examination, and while you are here, let’s talk about the importance of their brushing and flossing! (more…)

Hearing that your young child has a tooth infection can be tough. As a parent, you do everything in your power to provide for your little one’s comfort, but dental pain can come on suddenly and intensely. By scheduling an emergency appointment for your child, we can take an X-ray of their problem tooth to determine if an infection is present. Without treatment, bacteria could travel to other parts of their body, so it is paramount they receive care right away! With the aid of modern endodontics, we can perform a pulpotomy procedure that preserves the healthy portion of a child’s pulp. Compared to a traditional root canal, this method provides the same disease-combatting efforts while maintaining more of their healthy material.

At your Shirley, NY, pediatric dentist and orthodontist, we know that emergencies can happen when you least expect them. That is why we make ourselves available to see your little one shortly after contacting our office. While regular checkups and cleanings can lower a young one’s risk for tooth infection, emergency endodontic care is necessary to preserve little smiles when bacteria take hold. By preserving a child’s tooth, we maintain their bite until the natural time for the tooth to fall out. This allows the jaw to grow properly instead of pulling the tooth early.

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