A healthy child’s mouth is the basis for a healthy adult mouth, dentists emphasize and advise parents that brushing children’s teeth should start from the moment the first tooth appears.
As the Professor of Paediatrics at EKPA, Konstantinos Oulis, pointed out at a conference of the Piraeus Dental Association on “Paediatrics”, babies at the age of 6 months show their baby teeth, their first teeth. Parents should start from this age to clean them properly, first with a wet gauze and after the first year with a soft children’s toothbrush twice a day, morning and night. The earlier the cleaning of the child’s teeth begins, the easier it will become a daily habit for the rest of his life.
The first visit to the dentist is also necessary, which must be done before the baby’s first birthday. According to Mr. Uli, “most parents don’t know when to start brushing their children’s teeth or what breastfeeding caries is, and that’s why it’s good to visit the dentist when the first tooth erupts and at the latest at the age of one year. During the first visit, the dentist checks the baby’s oral and perioral area, educates the parents about good oral hygiene habits and proper nutrition for the whole family and informs them what can cause caries in the baby.”
Early caries
According to the experts, the main reason for the creation of early caries in the young teeth is the “invasion” of the baby’s mouth by the caries microbe, which is streptococcus. Transmission of the microbe occurs mainly from mother to child and this microbe needs sugar to survive. As pointed out by Mr. Ulis, “the condition of the mother’s mouth is directly related to the development of caries in the child, and the more sugar the child consumes, the more likely it is to develop caries.”
In addition, the occurrence of caries in infancy is favored by breastfeeding and the prolonged use of bottles, which must be stopped at the age of 12-14 months and under no circumstances should the child sleep with a bottle. Breastfeeding mothers, even after the appearance of the first baby teeth, must carefully clean the child’s teeth from milk residues, especially at night.
Dentists report that the risk of caries is greater at night, as the secretion of saliva, which works protectively in the mouth and teeth, decreases, with the result that the effect of acids is even more destructive at bedtime. “The feeding of the baby should be done when the infant is awake and sleeps with clean teeth” underlined Mr. Oulis and noted that “the new teeth are as important as the permanent ones and neglecting them under the pretext of changing them is wrong. The health of the new teeth largely guarantees the health of the permanent ones. Children’s teeth preserve the spaces that permanent teeth will need and contribute to the proper development of the jaws.”
The dentists of the Piraeus Dental Association recommend to future parents: To maintain a high level of oral health themselves, so as not to transmit pathogenic microbes to their newborn child and to take care of their children’s baby teeth by brushing them twice a day with fluoride toothpaste from the age of 6 months.
Tooth trauma
Tooth trauma is very common in childhood – especially in boys – and is caused by children falling, playing and playing sports, seizures, foreign bodies and car accidents. However, timely and correct treatment improves the prognosis of the tooth and limits the occurrence of unwanted consequences, as Nikolaos Lygidakis, Professor of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Leeds, said at the OSP conference.
According to him, when a child’s tooth comes out of its position after an injury, we must visit a pediatric dentist who will decide how to deal with the incident. The aim is to restore functionality, preserve space and maintain the health of the pulp and periodontium with the absence of pain and inflammation.
On the other hand, when a permanent tooth comes out after an injury, we must follow the following steps: find the tooth, rinse it with cold water (without touching its root) and put it back in its place in the mouth and keep it stable with a gauze. If we cannot do this, we put the tooth in cold milk or water and go immediately to the nearest pediatric dentist.
If a piece of the tooth breaks and we do not have a total detachment from its position, we keep the broken piece in water. The pediatric dentist can weld the broken piece or, if this is not possible, fill the gap with materials (composite resins) that perfectly imitate the dental tissues with a very good aesthetic result.
Protective splints
Children with strong teeth protrusion and those who systematically engage in sports are at great risk for dental injuries. Thus, the members of the Piraeus Dental Association recommend to all children with intense sports activity the use of special splints, as well as timely correction of orthodontic problems of protrusion of the upper front teeth.
“The dentist can make individual protective braces, which fit each child’s mouth, while braces can also be made for children undergoing orthodontic treatment and wearing braces,” the OSP members point out.
