If, like most kids, your child’s favorite food is dessert, you probably have a challenging time keeping their teeth cavity-free on a normal basis – let alone on Thanksgiving Day! Fortunately, you might not have to keep them attached to your hip just to protect their smile during the holidays. These creative dessert options are low on sugar, simple to make, and most importantly, delicious. Keep reading to get your fill of inspiration.

Proper oral hygiene is crucial to maintaining a healthy smile for a lifetime, and it’s important to get your child started with smart dental health habits as soon as possible. While children can be quite fussy about having to brush their teeth or perform other oral cleaning tasks, there are effective ways to make excellent dental hygiene more engaging for them. Here are a few tips for helping kids get excited about their oral health.

As a parent, ensuring your child’s overall health extends to their dental care. Cavities in children are quite common and need to be addressed promptly to prevent further issues. It’s important to manage these dental problems early to avoid complications down the road. Continue reading to discover why it’s crucial to address cavities in your child’s baby teeth as well as when dental fillings might be required and how to help maintain their healthy, happy smile.

Have you recently learned that your child needs a frenectomy to treat their lip or tongue tie? It can be scary to find out that your precious little one has to undergo surgery. But there is good news! A frenectomy is a relatively minor procedure that comes with a short and easy healing process. Just how long will it take for your child to recover, and how can you help them heal properly? This blog post provides some useful information.

Summer vacation is a time for family fun and adventure, but one toothache can bring the whole party crashing down. Knowing how to handle your child’s dental emergency while on vacation can save their smile and ensure that all your planning isn’t thrown out the window. Read on to find a guide to managing the most common dental emergencies during all your summer travels.

Sometimes kids can’t help but need “grown up” things a little earlier than expected. Kids with larger feet might need to ditch the kid’s department and start wearing adult-sized shoes while they’re still in elementary school, or they might even have graduated off the kid’s menu if they have the appetite for an adult-sized entrée. But one thing that your child hopefully will not need ahead of schedule is to lose a baby tooth. Thankfully, a tooth infection doesn’t automatically mean a pulled tooth. A procedure called a pulpectomy can help preserve an infected baby tooth without needing tooth removal.

What is a Pulpectomy?

A pulpectomy is a procedure that is performed to clear out infected tooth pulp from an otherwise healthy tooth. Pulp is a soft material located inside of both adult and baby teeth and is home to its blood supply and nerve endings. Pulp is how your teeth sense hot and cold. It also circulates blood, and even generates dentin which helps keep the tooth strong, but if the pulp becomes infected, it will need to be removed before the entire tooth becomes compromised.

How is a Pulpectomy Performed?

First, the pediatric dentist will numb your child’s tooth, so they do not feel any discomfort during the procedure. The dentist will then place a rubber dental dam in their mouth to keep the tooth free of saliva and bacteria and then drain the infected pulp from the tooth.

Next, the tooth will be disinfected, and re-filled with a medicated replacement material and therapeutic dressing. Finally, the dental dam is removed, and your child is free to return home.  Any pain from the tooth infection should be gone, although it is common to experience a little sensitivity for a few days after the procedure.

The Importance of Saving Baby Teeth

If your child’s baby tooth becomes infected, you may be wondering why the dentist doesn’t just remove it. After all, it’s only a baby tooth, and a new tooth will grow in its place, right? While it’s true that baby teeth will eventually fall out to create space for adult teeth, it is important for kids to keep their baby teeth until their permanent teeth are ready to erupt. Not only do baby teeth help your child chew and speak properly, if you remove them too early, they can cause misalignment, crowding, or malocclusion when the adult teeth finally do appear.

If your child needs a pulpectomy, there’s no need to be afraid. This procedure is quite common, and it will provide plenty of pain relief, all the while protecting both the infected tooth and surrounding healthy teeth. With this treatment, your child’s mouth doesn’t have to grow up too quickly.

About Dr. Thorburn

Board Certified pediatric dentist Dr. Meghan Thorburn loves helping children smile. Whether it’s performing a routine exam or a restorative procedure like a pulpectomy, Dr. Thorburn is living proof that there’s no reason to be afraid of the dentist!

To make an appointment for your child with Trinity Pediatric Dentistry, please visit our website, or call us at 682-688-3636.

If you’re the parent or guardian of an infant, you know that a huge part of your role is keeping them safe, happy, and whole. Were you aware, however, that their overall well-being can be impacted by their dental condition even before their teeth show up? It’s important to keep their mouths clean even before that happens for them to be able to grow healthy teeth. If you’re not sure what’s involved in proper preventative dental care for smaller kids, keep reading to learn more about it!

Discovering that your child has a lip or tongue-tie can be concerning, especially when it affects their ability to feed and thrive. Lip and tongue-ties are common conditions in infants, but the question remains: will they resolve on their own? Let’s delve into this topic and explore the importance of early intervention for these issues.

If your child is particularly anxious about visiting the dentist, you might feel tempted to skip their appointments. Unfortunately, this can have a detrimental impact on their oral well-being. It’s important that kids have their first dental visit by the time they’re one year old, and then every 6 months after that. This allows their pediatric dentist to monitor their teeth to ensure they don’t develop any issues in their still-developing mouths.

Many dentists offer sedation options as a result, but is this safe for your little one? Keep reading to learn more about it!

A child’s baby teeth represent an important step in the development of their oral and overall health, so many parents fret over when they might emerge and fall out. While children can be expected to have their baby teeth come in and fall out at some point, the timetable involved is different for every child. Here’s what you should know about when baby teeth emerge and depart as well as some tips for keeping your child’s baby teeth healthy.