Children's Dentistry
At Summit Dental Arts, we hope to educate our youngest
patients on good oral hygiene habits to last them a
lifetime! We often recommend sealants and fluoride
treatments at your child's hygiene appointment. It's
important to keep baby teeth healthy to provide chewing
ability during childhood, and to help a child learn to speak.
Baby teeth also guide the permanent teeth into their correct
positions.
We encourage our adult patients to bring young
children with them for their dental hygiene
appointments. The children can then become accustomed to
our office and we can easily check the child while mom or dad
is in the chair. Children should have their own hygiene
appointments between 2 and 5 years of age. However, if
you notice something that concerns you before this age, please do
not hesitate to contact our office.
Bottle syndrome, or early childhood caries, is the severe decay
of baby teeth caused by the presence of milk, formula or juice in a
child's mouth. Every time a child drinks anything containing
sugar, bacteria in the mouth produce acids that attack the tooth
enamel for at least thirty minutes. The most common source of
sugar is a bottle left in the child's mouth for long periods of
time, especially at night or during naps. Switching to a pacifier
or a bottle of plain water at these times will help you avoid
bottle syndrome and the damage it causes.
