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Babies are precious bundles of love. We treasure them, and want them to be as happy and healthy as possible. As adults, we hate seeing them uncomfortable, and feel a sense of quilt if they end up with any health issues.
Babies have teeth. Did you know those teeth are already present in the baby’s jaws when they are born? They are developing with everything else inside mom’s tummy. Around 6 months, they start to make an appearance in the mouth. Your dental team wants to meet your baby before this happens, if possible.
It may sound silly, why would a dentist want to look if there are no teeth? The answer is pretty simple. We don’t want your baby to fear us, or dislike us in any way! We want them to get to know us, and realize that we will laugh and play with them, look in their mouth, and give them a toy at the end of the encounter. If you’ve ever had a bad dental experience, you can understand that.
Later, when the inevitable happens and a tooth shows up, we want to see them again! We want everyone in the family noticing these miraculous choppers, and keeping them clean and healthy! Our goal is that the entire family is well educated on how to clean baby’s mouth and teeth, what to do after each bottle, how to put baby to bed with nothing but water, and so forth.
Babies’ gums need to be wiped clean daily, starting at birth. This keeps the oral cavity free of so much debris and bacteria, and gets baby used to a clean mouth. Babies tolerate this as much as they do anything….probably not their favorite thing to do, also not the worst.
At about three years old, all the baby teeth are usually present. There’s no way your baby can be responsible for proper brushing and flossing until they are about seven, and have the dexterity needed. This means the grown ups have to be on-board! Little ones actually enjoy the feeling of a clean mouth when they get used to it at a young age. If mom and dad, sister and brother, are all paying attention to their teeth, guess what the little ones will want to do? Yep.
Baby teeth pave the way for grown up teeth. Extremely sick baby teeth can make grown up teeth sick. Baby teeth are not ‘throw-away’ teeth. They need to be treated if they get decay. With our modern technologies, we often don’t even need to give the dreaded shots before repairing them. Every good dental experience builds on the last. Pretty soon you have an adult that does not need to be sedated to come see us.
If the baby teeth are lost, it’s pretty similar to what happens when the adult teeth are lost. The face appears collapsed, teeth migrate into the wrong spot, the little one has trouble eating, and even enunciating. The adult teeth almost don’t stand a chance if the baby teeth are ignored.
Little ones are wonderful. We want to see their smiles, not their tears. We want to see gorgeous teeth in their school photos. Please bring them to meet us when they are little and start them off on the right path!
