Children’s Oral Care Problems
As a parent who pays special attention to their child’s oral health, it can often be quite shocking to discover that your child has cavities, or even something worse, like gum disease!
But did you know that most every problem with your children’s teeth is fairly common?
And did you also know that such complications can not only be prevented, but also quickly cured?
It’s Not Your Fault!
You shouldn’t necessarily blame yourself as the parent if your pediatric dentist alerts you to some amendments that need to be made with your child’s oral care. More often than not this just means they are going through the typical motions in childhood oral health.
In fact, a better way to perceive this is that kids who don’t run into at least one of the most common oral care problems are doing far better than average at keeping a healthy smile.
What are the most common childhood oral health issues then? We’ve compiled a short list for you, so that if your child does run into oral health problems, you as the parent can know whether or not to be worried.
Child’s Oral Care – Common Problems:
Teething
- Teething occurs with every infant, but one thing to be aware of is that some will suffer more than others. If your child has extreme irritability, gum swelling, or any major pain during teething then there are sugar-free, infant teething gels that your dentist can recommend.
Remember to always consult your doctor before giving your children any kind of medication.
Gum Disease
- This may come as a surprise, but gum disease is actually fairly common in that the early stages can easily come about without proper oral health care. All it takes to swell the gums and cause minor bleeding is enough tartar and plaque buildup on the gum-line.
Fortunately minor gingivitis can often be alleviated simply by improved brushing habits and continuing regular dental visits.
Tooth Decay/Cavities
- One of the major differences between children’s teeth and adult teeth is that a child’s teeth have weaker layers of enamel. Therefore a child’s teeth are more susceptible to sugary drinks like soda and juices. If decay is left or overlooked by improper brushing, then it can start to form a cavity.
Cavities generally don’t start to hurt until the later stages, so if your child is complaining about pain then you shouldn’t wait for their next check-up to address the issue. If your child does happen to get tooth decay or a cavity, the problem can usually be caught early on, if not prevented by their regular dental appointments.
Enamel Erosion
- One thing that parents might overlook when giving their kids juice or sodas (even diet!) is that they are quite acidic, and acid can slowly erode a tooth’s enamel, especially when drinking out of a bottle.
Toothpastes and mouthwashes are designed to strengthen enamel and help fight off such things, but with over-consumption or without proper brushing it’s not hard for a child to end up with some erosion of the enamel. Weak enamel is prone to tooth decay, so be sure to take the right steps to prevent it!
Cutting back on drinking from bottles, restricting carbonated drinks to mealtime, drinking only water after brushing at night – all of these are helpful ways to avoid acid erosion.
Lost Tooth
- Sometimes, and especially when we are young, teeth can be knocked out. Whether it’s rough-housing, accidents, sports, anything really – kids have a knack of finding ways to lose a tooth. Rest assured though, you’re not the only parent left wondering what to do when your child brings back a cupped hand and a bloody mouth.
The best thing to do is to talk to your pediatric dentist. In the meantime you can try to prevent a lost tooth from drying out by placing it in a glass of milk, or having your child tuck it into their cheek.
Mouth Ulcers
- Sometimes your dentist may observe small sores inside your child’s mouth. These red or yellow annoyances are ulcers, and they’re fairly common. Some typical causes of ulcers are: bad brushing, biting the inside of the cheek, hot food or drink burns, brace abrasions, etc.
Usually ulcers dissipate in a few days, and they can be treated with antiseptic rinses, so they aren’t too much to worry about. If they persist though, you should schedule an appointment or ask your dentist for advice.
Of course there are more complications that can occur with your child’s oral health, but these are the problems that we most commonly come across. As you can see, they are relatively minor issues, but each of them does need to be addressed to avoid any major problems.
If you aren’t sure whether or not to wait for your kid’s next dental appointment, then just ask! The best way to ensure your child keeps a healthy smile is to coordinate with your dentist in overseeing proper oral care.
Breakfast Cereal and Children’s Dental Care
In a few of our posts now, we’ve mentioned the importance of healthy eating in children’s dental care. As busy parents, we understand that getting your children ready for school can sometimes be a challenge all on its own! Cereal for breakfast is always a great option for a busy morning but EP Dentistry 4 Kids wants to give you some information on how you can choose a good breakfast cereal for your child. We’d hate for you to unknowingly undo all of the hard work you put into teaching your children good dental habits with a breakfast cereal full of sugar!
More Sugar Than a Twinkie
According to a recent report, Sugar in Children’s Cereals by Environmental Working Group, one cup of any of 44 different children’s cereal–including Honey Nut Cheerios, Apple Jacks, and Cap’n Crunch–have more sugar than three Chips Ahoy! cookies. The top contender for most sugar, Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, has more sugar in a one cup serving than a Twinkie! We can’t imagine that you would feed your children dessert for breakfast in the morning but if you are feeding them some of the cereals listed below, that would be exactly what you are doing!
10 Worst Children’s Cereals: Based on percent of sugar by weight
- Kellogg’s Honey Smacks: 55.6%
- Post Golden Crisp: 51.9%
- Kellogg’s Froot Loops Marshmallow: 48.3%
- Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s OOPS! All Berries: 46.9%
- Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch Original: 44.4%
- Quaker Oats Oh!s: 44.4%
- Kellogg’s Smorz: 43.3%
- Kellogg’s Apple Jacks: 42.9%
- Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch Crunch Berries : 42.3%
- Kellogg’s Fruit Loops Original: 41.4%
Healthy Alternatives
Here is list of some good choices for children’s cereal that won’t leave your kid’s dental visit filled with cavity repair!
6 Good Big-Brand Children’s Cereals
- Kellogg’s Mini-Wheats Unfrosted Bite- Size
- Kellogg’s Mini-Wheats Frosted Big Bite
- Kellogg’s Mini-Wheats Frosted Bite-Size
- Kellogg’s Mini-Wheats Frosted Little Bite
- General Mills Cheerios Original
- General Mills Kix Original
Some other good options that aren’t children’s cereal, but may still have a good appeal to kids are Quaker Oats Oatmeal Squares Cinnamon and Post Honey Bunches of Oats with Vanilla Bunches.
Looking for More than Games on the Box
As a parent, you can help protect your children’s teeth by reading the labels on the boxes of cereal and looking out for these three items:
- Cereals with a short ingredient list (added vitamins and minerals are okay)
- Cereals high in fiber
- Cereals with few or no added sugars–including honey, molasses, fruit juice concentrate, brown sugar, corn sweetener, sucrose, lactose, glucose, high- fructose corn syrup and malt syrup
Cereals that meet these criteria can usually be found on the top shelves of the cereal aisle. They are harder to reach and not at eye level but are often less expensive.
We hope we’ve given you some great insight into the sugary world of children’s cereal! Don’t forget to brush, floss and rise regularly!
Mouthwashing, Flossing and Kids
To most adults regular use of floss and mouthwash can seem like something particular to being grown up, but did you know that even young children’s primary teeth need flossing and rinsing?
It may not seem so obvious at first, but when you consider that flossing and rinsing is mainly to prevent tooth decay and disease it makes sense that a child’s baby teeth should be cared for just the same as adult teeth.
Not only is it important to prevent early decay and promote your kid’s active interest in their dental hygiene, but helping your child keep a healthy mouth at an early stage will allow for their adult teeth to come in without any complications.
Learning to floss and rinse can be quite easy, but at what ages should kids start to do these things on their own?
Typically parents will help their child to floss until around age 8 or 9, and can begin to supervise their use of mouthwashes starting at age 6 or 7.
In these stages it’s important to demonstrate clear and concise cleaning techniques. Flossing can seem confusing or overexertive for young kids and rinsing can sometimes become swallowing.
For younger kids there are mouthwashes available that are less harmful when swallowed by accident to prevent any major mistakes in early learning.
Also available are formulas that will change colors when they encounter common plaque. This can help to show your kid just how effective the rinsing is when they spit it out.
Both flossing and mouthwashing take up very little time but are key to easily maintaining a healthy smile, so remember to floss and rinse and help your kids to do the same!
As always if you have any questions or inquiries concerning your child’s dental healthcare please feel free to ask our professional and knowledgable staff!
Take Care! Smile Big! -E.P. Dentistry
Keeping Your Child’s Teeth Healthy
It’s no secret that your child’s teeth are most vulnerable at an early stage and need special attention, but what are some things you can do to be proactive about protecting them?
Some parents aren’t aware that their child’s baby teeth can carry infection to the permanent teeth when they start to come in. To prevent this it’s important we teach our children to practice good brushing habits that not only stop any potential disease or infection, but that also carry on to having healthy teeth later in life too.
In our past few blogs we’ve given some tips on how to maintain healthy teeth. Dr. Joel Berg, who is president of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, would surely agree with many of these tips especially the most obvious: brushing regularly and eating healthy!
In an interview where both Dr. Berg and his esteemed colleague Fern Ingber (president of the National Children’s Oral Health Foundation) voice their top tips for children’s oral health, they maintain that early dental visits as well as making fun out of dentistry are key to a child’s overall oral health.
At E.P. Dentistry 4 Kids we aim to do exactly that! We believe that happy smiles are the best smiles!
What better way to take part in promoting your child’s good habits by making their dental visits a fun experience and bringing them to E.P. Dentistry!
Tips for a Healthier Mouth (Pt. 2)
Greetings and Happy Monday to all our fellow oral enthusiasts! Today we continue with a few more tips for maintaining a healthy smile.
If you missed the last blog you can catch the first 5 tips here!
More Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Smile
Drink Less Soda
The obvious reason behind this is because soda contains so much sugar that enough of it is truly counter-productive when it comes to fighting off oral germs; however, this isn’t the only reason soda is an enemy to your teeth!
Even diet sodas (yes the ones without sugar!) can be harmful to your teeth because soda (again – not just the non-diet ones) contains loads of acid that damages your tooth enamel over time.
Cutting back by just 1-2 sodas a day can gradually make all the difference in maintaining a healthy smile, so skip the pop and substitute it for something healthier in general – like juice!
More Fluoride!
Fluoride is a dental wonder and has been proven to help fight tooth decay and strengthen enamel, so why not take advantage?
Too much fluoride isn’t the best for you either, but investing in toothpaste and mouth rinse that includes fluoride is plenty to keep the right balance between too little and too much, so long as you aren’t doing regular fluoride rinses as well.
Use it in moderation, but definitely don’t overlook it!
Sugar-Free Gum
A long time ago chewing gum was actually something you would want to avoid to keep your mouth at its healthiest, but with the advances of sugar-free gum its quickly become just the opposite.
Gum can help keep your teeth strong as well as help to dislodge any food particles that may be collecting icky bacteria in your mouth.
As an added bonus, gum helps to promote saliva production which is what naturally rinses your mouth out throughout the day.
Extra Tip: always keep your mouth moist! A dry mouth collects and harbors germs much easier than a moist one.
Brush Your Tongue
For some of us more than others bad breath can be a major problem sometimes. Did you know that your tongue (not just your teeth!) actually forms a layer of it’s own plaque and bacteria over time if not maintained properly?
Be sure to give the back of your tongue a scrub here and there as you finish brushing your teeth. It does a great deal in helping to reduce overall oral bacteria as well as combating halitosis.
Protect Your Smile – Literally!
This tip is more suited for children (but applies to adults as well of course), especially those who actively participate in sports: wear a mouth guard.
Injuries happen to all of us, and when we least expect it, so investing in a mouth guard for contact sports or recreational sports (skating, etc.) where one can fall down and/or potentially hit their mouth is the best safety precaution.
Mouth guards can also be useful in preventing enamel damage for those who grind their teeth while sleeping.
That’s all for today, but stay tuned for more tips in the future! Until then, keep these ideas in mind and always remember to brush daily!
Tips for a Healthier Mouth (Pt.1)
Here at E.P. Dentistry 4 Kids we know that when it comes to keeping a whiter, healthier smile that we’re not the only ones who play a role!
It’s extremely important to be proactive about keeping your teeth clean if you want to maintain a healthy smile, so we’ve compiled a few tips for you to follow to make sure you’re always doing your part in the battle against plaque, tooth decay, enamel decay, etc.
5 Tips to Maintain Healthy Teeth
Brush 2-3 Minutes
It may be repeated often, but brushing your teeth for the proper amount of time is crucial to keeping your teeth clean and avoiding unnecessary trips to the dentist’s office.
We recommend 2-3 minutes of brushing. Certainly not any less, but not necessarily more either. It’s good to balance the amount of scrubbing you do on your teeth daily.
Which leads us to our next tip…
Moderation
Overbrushing, or not brushing your teeth enough, is more destructive than you might think.
Doing so can either cause your tooth enamel to be damaged over time, or if you’re not brushing enough you’re most likely collecting a lot of unwanted bacteria and plaque in your mouth, yuck!
It’s recommended that adults and kids brush their teeth 1-2 times each day, but no more than 3!
Eat Crispy Vegetables/Fruits
Another healthy way to keep your smile shining is to be healthier in your diet! There are a multitude of fruits and vegetables that have the unique ability to scrub the surface of your teeth with their abrasive like properties and keep them clean throughout the day.
Some of these fruits and veggies include: apples, raw carrots, celery sticks, etc. You can even substitute non-buttered popcorn as it is also considered a “detergent” food.
So snack away! But don’t forget about…
Mouthwashing After Snacks
One of the most important ways to keep your mouth healthy is to keep food from becoming lodged or stuck in between the teeth and gums.
Once stuck, the food collects more and more bacteria over time and increases your chance of developing minor cavities and plaque build-up in hard to reach areas.
The quickest way to remove food and build-up is to mouthwash once or twice daily in between major meals or after snacks.
Flossing works just as well, if not better, but if you feel something get stuck never just leave it be – grab a toothpick, some floss or rinse your mouth briefly to clean it out as soon as possible.
Create a Routine
There are so many tips to keep your teeth clean and avoid non-regular visits to your local dentist, but probably the most important of all is to develop a routine.
Making a habit out of when you brush your teeth, how often you floss, and paying mind to maintaining their beauty is essential to keeping them healthy throughout your lifetime.
Most of us brush both morning and night as we get in and out of bed, but for some this isn’t always the most feasible routine. Find out what times work best for you to be able to properly brush and rinse and start making it a habit to do it daily at those times.
The goal is to make maintaining a healthy smile more of a subconscious activity than something you have to think about constantly in order to achieve!
These are just a few easy tips for being your own dentist while we’re not in the picture!
We’ll be back in our next blog with a few more so be on the lookout!
5 Reasons to use Your Dental Insurance Before the End of the Year
Did you know that you could actually save hundreds of dollars by using your dental benefits before the end of the year? While some dental insurance plans run on a fiscal year, most run on a calendar year. If your dental insurance plan is on a calendar year, these 5 reasons will show you why you should make a dental appointment now.
1. Yearly Maximum
The yearly maximum is the most money that the dental insurance plan will pay for your dental work within one full year. This amount varies by insurance company, but the average is around $1,000 per year, per person. The yearly maximum usually renews every year (on January 1 if your plan is on a calendar year). If you have unused benefits, these will not rollover.
2. Deductible
The deductible is the amount of money that you must pay to your dentist out of pocket before your insurance company will pay for any services. This fee varies from one plan to another however, the average deductible for a dental insurance plan is usually around $50 per year. Your deductible also starts again when your plan rolls over.
3. Premiums
If you are paying your dental insurance premiums every month, you should be using your benefits. Even if you don’t need any dental treatment, you should always have your regular dental cleanings to help prevent and detect any early signs of cavities, gum disease, oral cancer and other dental problems.
4. Fee Increases / Changes in Coverage
Another reason to use your benefits before the end of the year are possible fee increases. Some policies raise the out of pocket costs and / or lower the covered benefits at the beginning of the year.
5. Dental Problems Can Worsen
By delaying dental treatment, you are risking more extensive and expensive treatment down the road. What may be a simple cavity now, could turn into a root canal later.
Use Up Your Existing FSA Contributions
Another good reason to take care of dental work now is to spend any remaining balance in your flexible spending account (FSA). This is an account that you establish through your employer, and that you may have elected to have some of your pre-tax pay put into. If you don’t use all of your FSA contributions by the end of the year, you lose them.
Schedule your appointment now to ensure you are maximizing your benefits!
Visit EPD4K.com today!
What are the side effects of poor oral health?
Greetings again! I’d like to discuss a topic that will help educate all the parents out there. That topic is the potential side effects of poor oral health. There is a misunderstanding by a portion of people that the worst case scenario for not taking care of your kid’s teeth is a mouthful of cavities. As bad as that is, the real consequences of poor oral health can be much, much worse.
Rather than reinvent the wheel, I have included an out take from a Texas publication that summarized the potential side effects very well. I like this more than most other reports because it breaks down the side effects into three different categories: economic, medical and social. The report is called “Can Texas Afford Not To Care About Oral Health” and can be found at this link. I’ve highlighted the portions that are most applicable to children.
1. Economic consequences of untreated oral disease. Untreated oral disease has serious economic consequences. The surgeon general estimates that children with oral disease miss over 51 million hours of school each year. Missing school not only disrupts student learning, it also directly affects local school funding, since the amount of state dollars a school in Texas receives is based in part on weighted average daily attendance. Untreated dental disease is extremely painful and affects a person’s productivity at work. According to the surgeon general, employed adults lose an estimated 164 million hours of work due to oral health problems or dental visits each year. What’s more, adults with visible dental problems are less employable and sometimes reluctant to seek employment because they are simply ashamed to open their mouths. Untreated oral diseases can also drive up health care costs in general. Left untreated, certain dental infections can become systemic and damage other parts of the body, resulting in the need for expensive emergency department visits, hospital stays, anesthesia and antibiotics.
2. Medical consequences of untreated oral disease. Failure to treat oral diseases costs more than money. It can also seriously compromise a person’s general health and quality of life. The good news is that most oral diseases are preventable. The bad news is that left untreated, dental infections can enter the bloodstream and lead to serious and occasionally life threatening conditions. In fact, the International Classification of Diseases lists more than 120 systemic diseases that come from the oral cavity. Although the health care system often treats the mouth as separate and apart from the rest of the body, oral and general health are closely linked. What happens in the mouth can and does affect what happens in other parts of the body. An ever-expanding body of research supports possible associations between oral disease (particularly gum disease) and medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and bacterial pneumonia. Researchers have also found evidence of the vertical transmission of bacteria causing oral disease between caregivers and very young children. And the mouth is increasingly being used to help identify other health conditions throughout the body, such as early stages of diabetes.
Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease among American children, causing unnecessary pain, avoidable facial disfigurement and rarely but tragically, life-threatening infections. Early Childhood Caries (cavities among 2- to 5-year olds, also known as ECC) are increasingly common. According to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, “not only does ECC affect teeth, but consequences of this disease may lead to more widespread health issues.” Oral problems can also dramatically affect babies and toddlers with untreated cleft lip / palate (a congenital birth defect). Structural problems and chronic pain caused by the cleft lip/palate can make eating painful — inhibiting healthy growth and sometimes resulting in a condition known as “failure to thrive.”
3. Social consequences of untreated oral disease. Although difficult to quantify, the social consequences of poor oral health are also important. Children with untreated oral disease often have difficulty eating, speaking and sleeping. They may be ashamed of their appearance and have a hard time interacting with their peers. What’s more, children with pain from untreated cavities or other dental conditions may be distracted in school and unable to learn or participate. One study even found a link between oral health problems and low self-esteem, teen delinquency and adolescent pregnancy. Adults with visible dental problems also suffer. As described earlier, many are reluctant to seek employment because of how they look or sound when they try to speak.
Wow…that may be a lot to take in. How about some good news to make you feel better? That’s easy. How about three simple steps to minimize the chance of your children having to deal with any of the problems listed above? OK…here they are: brush, floss and see your dentist every six months. It’s as easy as that.
Hopefully, you found this information educational. If you’d like a discussion on any other topics, please feel free to send them to me at brentcroberts@gmail.com.
Thanks!
Dr. Brad Roberts
Welcome to EP Dentistry 4 Kids
Greetings everyone. Our hope in starting this blog is to offer our insights on interesting topics and trends in children’s dentistry as well as some insight into our philosophy on that same topic.
If you are a parent, you may have noticed some rather dramatic changes in the industry over the past decade especially for those on some form of Medicaid/AHCCCS. Access to dentistry especially among the lower income had lots to be desired. This was highlighted in the 2000 report Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General (for complete report, go here). This report shined much-needed light on the “silent epidemic” of untreated oral disease — and affirmed the link between oral health and general health. A few years later in 2003, the government, health care providers and public health advocates released A National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health.
Many states responded to this government call to action by increasing funding for oral health. In addition, there was a concerted effort to find sign up additional providers especially in under served areas. To it’s credit, Texas greatly increased it’s attention which has resulted in many more dentists opening offices in our state. This is one of the reasons we at EP Dentistry 4 Kids opened our first office in 2008.
Since opening our first office on Dyer Street in 2008, we’ve opened up two additional offices. First the office on Zaragosa in early 2009 and, more recently, the office on Mesa and Sunland Park in early 2011. We truly enjoy serving the El Paso community and appreciate everyone that considers us their dentist.
A few of us will be writing on this blog about a variety of subjects that will help you better understand who we are and help explain various topics related to children’s dentistry. Some of the topics will include possible side effects from poor oral health, explanation of changes to various insurance plans, and our philosophy on patient service and satisfaction just to name a few.
If there are any subjects you are interested in us discussing, please contact us via e-mail at contact@epd4k.com. We’ll do our best to respond in a timely manner.
Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. Hope you enjoyed it and found it informative.
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