Your Child's Dentist: When Should They Start Going?

It's important for your child to start seeing a dentist even before they develop their baby teeth. You may feel like a overprotective parent making an appointment for an infant but the sooner your child get started becoming familiarized with the dentist office the better their experience will be as they grow up. The doctor can check your child's gums to ensure that their teeth are developing properly even before they bud and can look for other developing problems before they become a problem.

As your child's baby teeth develop a dentist is a great consultant to help you avoid common parental errors that lead to problems down the road. Children who suck on pacifiers or bottles beyond a set age are in danger of damaging not only their baby teeth but their adult teeth as well. Your pediatrician has probably already counsel to on how long your child should suck on a pacifier or use a bottle but sometimes when you hear it from the specialist themselves how much it's going to cost you to repair your children's teeth if they continue to use a pacifier or bottle beyond the recommended age requirement it can be an eye-opener to pull the plug.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because their baby teeth they don't need the same care that adult teeth do. There's nothing worse than a child who is in pain because they have a toothache on a baby tooth that could have been prevented. Your doctor has more leeway to extract a baby tooth than an adult tooth if the tooth is decayed but sometimes those baby teeth are meant to stay in as long as twelve years and pulling it now can interfere with your child's normal tooth development process. For example pulling a tooth without a spacer can lead to the surrounding teeth growing sideways or crooked to fill in that gap or space.

Teaching your child proper oral health care at a young age will ensure that not only do they have healthy teeth and good oral health as they grow up that you won't have high dental bills trying to repair tooth decay that should never have occurred in the first place.

Talk to your dentist about sealants for your child's teeth to help prevent tooth decay in conjunction with brushing, flossing and using fluoride rinse.

Your doctor is your best source of information for preventative care and if you involve your child at an early age in their own dental care you may be surprised at how easily they undertake this responsibility as a normal course of life. Don't wait until your child is five or six years old to introduce the toothbrush and dental floss. Children who grow up knowing about proper dental hygiene tend to be the kids that graduate from the dentist office without any cavities.

Remember it's never too early to start taking care of your child's teeth.