Dental FAQs for Kids
Seattle, WA
It can often prove challenging to get children engaged with their dental healthcare and other parts of their overall healthcare. When children are empowered to care about the health of their teeth, they are much more likely to stay engaged. Empowering your children to care more about their teeth can help them to establish healthy dental routines and habits that will serve them a lifetime of dental wellness.
Our dental professionals at Queen Anne Family Dental have some great tips that will help you to empower your children to care more about their teeth and their overall oral wellness. Even children who are as young as two years old can be empowered to adapt good oral health routines. We are here to answer any of your questions about dentistry for kids.
 Why Do Baby Teeth Matter?
Your child’s teeth play an important role in your child learning how to eat a range of solid foods. If your child feels discomfort or pain due to a cavity in a tooth, they may ease back on eating or may not chew correctly. This can quickly result in certain nutritional deficiencies that can take a toll on how your child continues to grow.
An untreated cavity can lead to a serious infection, which can potentially spread across the body. This could become an emergency situation that requires hospitalization.
What is a Pulpotomy?
This procedure is similar to a root canal. First, we provide your child with an anesthetic so they will not be in any pain during the procedure. Next, we isolate the tooth that needs the pulpotomy using a dental dam. We then clean the tooth, removing the decayed enamel from the exterior. Once we can get into the crown of the tooth, we use a tool to remove its infected pulp. If there is any pulp that is not infected, we clean it before we seal the tooth. At the end of the procedure, we place a new crown on the tooth. While adult crowns can be made from a variety of materials, we typically use a stainless steel crown for a pulpotomy.
How Do I Encourage My Child to Brush Their Teeth?
It is no secret that many children will find brushing their teeth to be tedious and boring. Needing to brush their teeth for a full two minutes can be quite frustrating for some children. If you are able to infuse a bit of fun into this boring daily task, it can help to make things a bit more engaging.
Make up fun songs about brushing or find videos that have witty silly songs about brushing your teeth for those full two minutes. You could also get some entertaining dental health books for your children to add to their collection of books.
Create a sticker chart, with your child earning a sticker each day that they brush their teeth twice a day. They could earn fun sugar-free treats or perhaps an outing to a favorite park at the end of the week.
Contact Us Today!
Remember that it is important that your child is seen by our dentist every six months. Call Queen Anne Family Dental at (206) 424-4450 to schedule your child's first visit, a checkup or professional cleaning for your child’s baby teeth. |
