Dentistry For Children
Plaza Dental Center provides complete dentistry for children of all ages.
Dentistry For Children. Great dental care is something the entire family deserves, from parents to children. But as an adult with your own needs and priorities on top of the demands of parenthood, how do you find time to help your children care for their teeth? Make it easy on yourself by simply scheduling a pediatric dentistry appointment with Plaza Dental Center. Pediatric dentistry helps growing children of all ages with the wide range of dental concerns they experience.
Get started today! Plaza Dental Center is ready to help you help your kids grow healthy, strong, and confident with the great smile they deserve through our dentistry for children. To schedule an appointment for dentistry for children, contact our team now at 314-361-1818 or fill out our online contact form. Our skilled and friendly dental team will work with the whole family to give your children of all ages the best dentistry for children and the most pleasant experience.
Dentistry for Children: When and Why
Dentistry for children lays the necessary foundation for the strongest and healthiest set of teeth for the rest of a child’s life. Early oral health education, treatment, and routines help your young child with a foundation for strong and healthy teeth and gums that will put their oral health at an advantage for the rest of their years. Oral health and dentistry for children should be brought into an infant’s life as soon as their first tooth emerges. Dentists highly recommend that each child sees a dentist by the time they are a year old.
Though many times young patients have non-permanent baby teeth, dentistry for children is critical because:
- Dentistry for children is not just for young children. People from one year to eighteen years and older see pediatric dentists and family dentists.
- Healthy baby teeth are a necessary foundation for strong, well-aligned permanent teeth.
- The health of baby teeth themselves are important in their own right. A child still relies on their baby teeth for years, usually working with a combination of adult and baby teeth until they reach early teenage years. Keeping baby teeth healthy helps us bite, chew, and speak effectively and comfortably during this time.
Provide your child with dentistry for children, so that your Plaza Dental Center team can:
- Answer your questions about oral habits and possible concerns
- Determine whether your child is at risk for developing cavities or other oral health issues
- Administer advice on forming healthy oral habits, like brushing and flossing regularly, and eradicating unhelpful ones, such as thumb-sucking
- Undergo preventative treatments, like routine cleaning, fluoride treatment, and sealants, to help the overall health of your child’s teeth
- Track the growth and development of your child’s teeth and jaws
The Role of Dentistry for Children
Dentistry for children is used for all the oral health needs of developing individuals in the Greater St. Louis area – from regular teeth cleaning, examinations, and special and emergency procedures. All children should at least see the dentist every six months for regular pediatric dentistry appointments. However, in many cases, your dentist may detect the need for additional dentistry services for children.
Your child’s dentist and hygienist should be familiar with the unique needs of children, both physiologically and emotionally. A young person may be scared or agitated when visiting the dentist and can have a low tolerance to the discomfort they feel and the intimidating tools they see and hear. Dentistry for children not only requires the dentist to have an understanding of the needs of a developing mouth, but also possess a skill for keeping children calm, distracted, and comfortable and motivating them to follow dental hygiene instructions. All parents have faced the challenges of trying to coax a child to sit through an uncomfortable experience, so your dentist must be able to successfully communicate with your child and build a rapport between them.
Treatments in Children’s Dentistry
Dentistry for children serves many purposes for a person throughout their lifetime. Primarily, it is a preventative measure with an impact that lasts throughout a child’s lifetime. Dentistry for children is tasked with treating some of the most common issues in developing mouths, including delayed teething, malocclusion or misaligned teeth, dental caries and tooth decay, and ongoing thumb-sucking.
- Topical Fluoride: Fluoride is great for in preventing cavities and decay, and strengthening tooth enamel
- Dental Sealants: Sealants effectively prevent foreign particles such as food from getting into the crevice of a tooth, and they are easy and painless to apply. Sealants can be used to shield a child’s molars from infection and cavity.
- Root Canal Therapy: Root canals are used when there is inflammation, infection, or nerve damage to prevent additional damage. Removing pulp and nerve tissue from inside a damaged tooth alleviates pain, prevents the formation of abscesses, and can prevent a child from developing malocclusion.
- Bonding: Bonding is used for both general and cosmetic dentistry. The dentist molds a resin material to the size, shape, and appearance of a natural tooth, and it is then applied and hardened. It is a swift and easy way to protect an exposed root, and is perfect for hiding minor chips, cracks, and gaps, leaving your child with a perfect smile.
- Fillings: Sometimes cavities happen even when we take the best possible care of our smile. Young people are more susceptible to tooth decay, plaque, and cavities because they generally eat more sugary, sticky foods and may not be as faithful to the recommended oral hygiene routine as adults are.
- Emergency Dental: Children are active, and like it or not, at some point they will get hurt on some scale. If you have a dentist for your pediatric dentistry needs, there is no question about who to call when your kid trips on the playground and chips their tooth, or cracks a tooth playing ball. Plaza Dental is equipped to address any dental emergency for a patient of any age.
- Orthodontic & Other Treatments: Some kids need devices like mouth guards, space maintainers, and braces to assist the placement of their teeth and jaw as they grow. As they get older, they will likely need wisdom teeth removal. Your pediatric dentistry clinic, Plaza Dental, can provide all these services and will be there to help your child through every stage of their dental needs.
You can count on Plaza Dental for any of our other services in addition to all services regarding dentistry for children. As your children’s dentistry team, we are committed to educating both parents and children, helping children form good oral hygiene habits, tracking their oral development, keeping families abreast of their child’s dental needs, and supplying dental hygiene products developed specifically for kids, like soft-bristle toothbrushes that are bright and colorful.
Dentistry for Children | Plaza Dental Center
The Plaza Dental Center team has been providing excellent dentistry for children in the St. Louis area for many years. We are proud of the opportunities we have received to help entire families with their complete dental needs. It is a joy to provide dentistry for children in the community throughout the years as we watch them grow into beautiful, healthy adults with great smiles. For a stress-free dentistry for children experience that sets your children up for the bright future they deserve, come to Plaza Dental Center. Begin your dentistry for children services today by calling us at 314-361-1818 or filling out our form. To learn more, select the area nearest you from the list below.