Dentist in Wayland Loves to Help Little One’s Smiles, Too!

When you look down at your child smiling up at you, your heart melts each and every time! Those pearly whites are too cute to not fall for. If you want to keep your little one’s smile in great shape both health wise and aesthetically, you should become familiar with children’s dentistry and how important preventive care is. That’s why your dentist in Wayland is here to share a few facts about children’s oral health in this weeks’ blog post!

5 Interesting Children’s Dental Facts

1. Children have a set of 20 baby teeth.

Primary teeth (baby teeth) appear right around the time that the child turns 6 months old. They will continue developing until the child is about 3 or 4 years old. Then, their permanent adult teeth will begin slowly coming in throughout their adolescence.

2. Your baby will feel extra fussy while teething.

You might think you know about teething already, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. Teething can cause sore gums, loss of appetite and even interruptions with sleep in infants. But if your child develops fever or diarrhea during milk teeth eruption, this means that the bacteria on their fingers or toys has been ingested through their mouth. Be sure to reach out to their pediatrician if this happens often.

3. Proper oral hygiene should start early, not just when the first tooth erupts.

You should start maintaining your child’s mouth way before the first tooth even erupts. Ge them familiar with someone/something in their mouth by massaging their gums with a clean rag or your own fingers if you’ve just washed your hands.

4. A child’s first dental visit should be scheduled when the first tooth appears.

When the first tooth erupts through the gum line, you should take your child to the dentist. This promotes positive dental experiences from an early age. Plus, your Wayland dentist can double check that their mouth is developing correctly.

5. Pacifiers and thumbsucking can cause oral health problems.

Relying on a pacifier or your child’s thumbsucking habit may not seem detrimental to their oral health, but if they are constantly using these coping mechanisms their smile could suffer. The constant presence of something against their teeth may shift their smile and cause alignment issues.

The Basics of Keeping Your Baby’s Mouth Healthy

Maintaining your child’s oral health is pretty simple and practical. All you have to do is follow these simple steps to keep your little one’s smile strong and durable over the years:

• Bring your child to visit the dentist twice a year or every 6 months for dental checkups and cleanings.
• Make sure to brush and floss your child’s teeth effectively until they are old enough to do it themselves.
• Monitor how long your little one is brushing their teeth for. It should be a duration of at least two minutes long.

If you have more questions about how a dentist can help your little one optimize their oral health, feel free to contact their local family dentist for more information.

About Our Office

Here at Wayland Dental, we take pride in building relationships with people from the moment they first visit the office. This even goes for the youngest patients that visit our practice! If you want to start your little one off on the right foot when it comes to dental care, feel free to schedule their first appointment with us.