Tag: Pediatric Dentistry

6 Dental Emergencies in Kids that Parents Should Be Aware Of

 

Are you keeping an eye on your child while the baby is running about playfully in the lawn? Is there an element of anxiety and palpitation that is running down your spine? You must be worrying about the kid hurting itself. But hold on! You cannot keep accidents at bay in this manner, can you? Rather, try keeping yourself prepared for an unprecedented situation, as far as possible!

In this piece, we have tried to discuss some of the common dental emergencies that might be faced by your child at some point of time.

 

Knocked Out Baby Tooth:

If a baby tooth is knocked out too soon, it can lead to teeth crowding the vacant spot. This can cause alignment issues when the permanent tooth begins to emerge and could lead to crooked teeth and biting problems. Visit your dentist immediately or as soon as possible if your child prematurely loses a baby tooth. Your dentist will be able to check the incoming adult tooth and provide your child with a spacer if necessary to prevent any crowding that may occur.

 

Persistent Tooth Ache:

 If your child has a toothache, then have them rinse their mouth with warm water to ease the pain. After 48 hours of the persistence of the pain, you should see your dentist as soon as you can. Persistent toothaches can indicate more serious problems that need to be observed by a dental professional.

 

Fractured Tooth:

 Fracturing a tooth is almost like a childhood rite of passage. If your child fractures a tooth, pick up the fragments, store them in a clean container of cool water, saliva, or milk and carry them to the dental office immediately. Your dentist will be able to repair the tooth or fix it with a crown. In the meantime, have your child rinse their mouth with warm water if they are experiencing any pain.

 

Objects That Won’t go Away:

 This is a less common problem, but still very serious: if something becomes lodged in between your children’s teeth, beneath their gum line or impacts the surface of their gums, then visit the dentist. When an item gets stuck in any of those areas, it can cause serious damage. Objects stuck in the mouth can cause, pain, swelling, and infection, not to mention plaque and cavities. If you can’t get rid of the obstruction by brushing and flossing, then visit our office so that we can dislodge it.

 

 Tongue or Cheek Injury with Excessive Bleeding:

 Chewing on the tongue or inside of the cheek is a habit that is common in children and teens. Usually, bleeding can be stopped by applying clean gauze to the affected area. However, sometimes regular chewing can lead to excessive bleeding. If your child has an open oral wound, then they are more susceptible to infection. If there is bleeding on their tongue or inner-cheek that lasts longer than 48 hours, visit the dentist as soon as possible to prevent infection and stop the bleeding.

 

 

Cited: Dental Caries (Tooth Decay) in Children Age 2 to 11

Children are sometimes difficult to be dealt with and more so when the infant is too young to express his or her trouble properly. In such cases, seeing your kid’s dentist at the earliest would be the wisest thing to do! Quick and decisive action from your end can prevent your child from permanent tooth damage.

 

 

 

How to Convince Your Child for a Dental Visit?

Adults are often known to suffer from dental phobia. About 20% of the US citizens, according to studies, refrain from dental visits, simply because they suffer from significant levels of dental anxiety. Therefore, children would quite obviously suffer from varied levels of dental fear.

Now, if you are the one suffering from a dental anxiety, it would certainly affect your child’s dental visits. Try not to influence your child in a negative manner. For this, you need to shrug off your worries first. Only then will you be able to convince your kid to accompany you to the dentist, even if it is for a regular check up.

Nevertheless, even after all your efforts if your child is bent on skipping a dental check up, you may try your hands on some of these techniques in order to pester your child for a dental visit:

 

Make the dental trip a fun filled one for the child:

Your child should not be under the impression that the dentist is kind of a stern person with tough hands and harsh words for his patients. Although this is not the case these days, yet, take him to the dentistry and let him tour the kids section (choose an office that has an interesting an separate corner for kids or special arrangements for them). Let the child converse freely with the dental expert and share things (pictures or stories) that would instigate the kid to have healthy teeth.

 

Your child’s pre-school should arrange for trips:

Nowadays, its common for nurseries and pre-schools to take the kids to dental trips. There, they get to have a look at the tools, talk to the people over there, learn about dental hygiene and so on. Since all of this takes place in a friendly ambiance and the kids are there in a group, along with their peers, the overall experience proves to be fun for them! Consequently, they are freed from dental fear, if any.

 

Play a game with your kid pretending to be his / her dentist:

This would be another fun filled activity for your child which could probably generate his interest in visiting the dental office. You could dress yourself up once as the dentist itself or a nurse in the dental office. Take your child in front of the mirror. Show him/her the teeth. Pretend as if you are examining the child and while doing so, explain to him the to-dos in order to resolve the issues. For instance, if they have cavities, tell them how to get rid of it. Or else, simply explain why he / she would require a filling!

 

Bribing your child for a dental visit is a big mistake:

If you have the idea of bribing your kid so that he agrees to accompany you to the dentist, you are seriously committing a mistake! Once you do this, your child gets the notion that going to the dentist must be something scary and tough and that is why you are ready to bribe him. In fact, you need to instill in him that a dental check up is no big deal, and there is nothing much to worry about.

 

Stay with the child all the time:

A parent’s presence, even if it is without some soothing or calming words, naturally puts your child at ease. Your absence from the room could instill fear in the kid and he might not cooperate with the dentist then. Silence is often unnerving for a patient. This is why dental experts have a habit of chatting with the patients. So, if you keep conversing with your child (even if he or she can’t see you) you will be actually making the job of the dentist easy for him!

Well, before all that, it quite goes without saying that, you could free your child from any dental fear if you start early. A baby’s first dental visit should happen as early as 6 months or as soon as his first tooth appears. A regular check up at an interval of every 6 months, would automatically let him know that this is a must-do thing at regular intervals.

Is Sedation Dentistry Safely Applicable For Your Kid?

Be careful while your child is being sedated

If you are one among the scores of patients who suffer from the typical dental fear while walking inside the dental office, you must essentially know all about sedation dentistry. In this post, we will be concerned with sedation dentistry applied to children for carrying out their dental procedures. In simple terms, sedation is the technique that would help your child relax, when you are seated in front of your children’s dentist .

Whether in case of adults or children, sedation can be administered to the patients in different levels, from mild to deep sedation or even to the extent of a general anesthesia!

Let us have a notion about the various degrees of sedation that are commonly used by the children’s dentist.

 

  • Inhaled Sedation: A mask is worn by the patient for this and he or she is made to inhale nitrous oxide or “laughing gas” combined with oxygen. The amount inhaled is well monitored by your child’s dentist and he adjusts the dose as required. This sedation wears off easily and your kid can normally walk back home after the procedure is done.
  • Oral Sedation: A pill, usually from the Valium family is given to the child, which makes him or her feel drowsy. It is often combined with the laughing gas and applied to the patient too.
  • Intravenous Sedation: Sedatives are directly injected into the veins of the child. This sedation is slightly deeper and your baby would require some time after the dentist’s job is done, in order to recover from his/her state of trance. Only then would he be able to walk back home!
  • General Anesthesia: This method makes the patient completely unconscious. Complex dental procedures which usually take a longer duration calls for a general anesthesia only. Otherwise it is not a very common tool that is used by dentists in general.

So how are children exposed to different levels of sedation?

Children remain at a greater risk of going down deeper into a sedation, once applied. Past medical history has it that unintended level of sedation has put a number of innocent lives into danger. In fact, statistics reveal that in the last three decades, a many as 44 children, aged between 2 to 5 years of age, succumbed to inappropriate levels of sedation administered through a general anesthesia.

So, you need to be extra conscious, when your baby needs to be taken to the pediatric dentist. There are certain things a parent should keep in knowledge before a kid undergoes any dental intervention.

 

  • Children with enlarged tonsils are more susceptible to airway obstruction than adults. The comparatively smaller airway (in children below 6 years of age) remain at greater chances of being blocked easily.
  • Oxygen reserve in a small child’s body is much less than that of an older child (one who is aged above 12). Hence, in case of emergencies, a kid’s body is not equipped to cope up with a small crisis of oxygen within the body and thus fall a prey to fatal outcomes.
  • One needs to be extra attentive with overweight and obese children. The sedative drugs do not get metabolized easily and remains stored in the fat cells! These children take a longer time to recover from their sedation.

Sedation is not something that your child’s dentist would easily recommend. A kid’s behavior, state of mind, strength of nerve etc.will be taken into account before your pediatric dentist suggests an anesthesia for him or her. In order to ensure precision in this regard, a parent needs to meticulously choose a children’s dentist at Cypress TX and zero in on the best kids dentistry within the nearby locality.