“A child is the father of a man” rightly said.
In this page we are going to discuss the importance of maintaing the health of milk teeth or primary teeth and the special care required for a child patient

The first tooth of my child
It is a difficult time for the child and parents alike. The eruption of teeth causes pain and discomfort to the child. Teething is also associated with fever, diaorrhea for the child and sllepless nights for the parents. Excessive salivation drooling are commonly seen during teething. Maintain hygene of the water food and teethers or toys as the child tends to put these in his/her mouth.

My child’s First Visit
One should consult a pedodontist at the sight of the first tooth. It is an important milestone for every child. Parents tend to worry about delayed eruptions and irregular positioning of teeth. Congenital absence of teeth is common in Indis owning to consanguinous marriages.

The environment

A well designed waiting and play area welcomes every child visiting our hospital. The appearance plays a very important role in maintaining and modifying the mood of a child.
Appointments can be fixed on phone to save your as well as the doctors time. Children tend to get restless with the passage of time. Our working area is deigned keeping away all he instrumentation away from a child’s sight. A huge aquqrium brings smiles to every child in the operatory.

Local Anasthesia but no fear of Injection

New advances in dental medications have virtually eliminated the discomfort of dental procedures. Anaesthetic gels and sprays are preferred in children. In case the procedure requires extensive anaesthesia we have special cartridge syringes with extra fine needles which eliminate the pain and fear of an injection

Habits

Habits such as thumb sucking, mouth breathing, nail biting are commonly seen in children. These habits can lead to deleterious effects on the oral health and also the overall health of a child.
A pediatric dentist can help a child in giving up his/her habit by counselling, parent counselling and by use of various speceifically designed appliances such as

Treatment for dental decay

A decayed milk tooth needs to be treated differently unlike the decayed permanent tooth.
Owning to the small size the treatment is more coservative with the use of hand instruments instead of the machines and adhesive materials such as GIC and composites instead of silver fillings.

Caries prevention-A reality !!!
Dental caries is the disease with the highest incidence among human beings.The molars (back teeth) are the most commonly affected teeth. The reason being the shape , surface and the use. As we know that prevention is better than cure. caries in molars can be prevented by application of sealants.
Sealants are agents which are inert and stick to the tooth surface and prevent bacteria from attaching and attacking the tooth surface.

Sealants act best when they are applied to a newly erupted tooth. Parents are advised to get their child for routine check up to the dentist. Age for sealant  application

6 years -I molars
10 years –I premolars
12 years –II molars and II premolars

Treatments for children with special health care needs

It is a tough task to carry out treatment procedures in children. A pedodontist is trained to manage a child in the dental operatory. However in certain cases like very young children(less than 2 years), mentally challenged patients or emationally immature children, it becomes a difficult ordeal. In these situations patients can be treated under sedation or general anaesthesia.

What is Root Canal Treatment?

When a milk tooth is deeply affected and becomes painful, it requires more than a filling. The procedures carried out are commonly known as root canal treatments. In milk teeth we call them as pulpotomy(partial)/pulpectomy(complete). New advances in techniques and instruments have resulted in fast and painless procedures. We carry out single visit root canal treatment with absolutely no pain whatsoever.The use of rotary instruments and Injectable filling materials has made our job easy
After the primary tooth has undergone Pulp Therapy it is more brittle and must be protected by a crown to give the tooth strength for chewing pressure.

Capping of milk teeth
     
We use single step preformed crowns in children unlike the custom made crowns that are used in adult patients. There are different crowns for anterior and posterior teeth

Stainless Steel Crowns
     
These are spaecifially designed crowns for the milk teeth. They come in different sizes as the size of teeth also vareis from patient to patient. A tooth is prepared for the fitting of the crown and then a suitable crown is placed using a sticky material such as GIC which also prevents further decay

Esthetic crowns
     
Even kids nowadays are bothered about their looks. Good appearance plays an important role in shaping the personality of a child.if the front teeth need to be restored we have tooth clored crowns which are easy, effective and esthetically perfect. One can even select the shade of the crowns.

Early loss of milk teeth not a worry

The importance of milk teeth is many a times under estimated.the milk teeth perform several functions-

1. help in chewing
2. growth of jaw bones
3. guide the permanent teeth

if a milk tooth is lost or needs to be removed then one has to look into the after effects of the early loss. A pediatric dentist can give specially designed appliances called space maintainers which not only guide the newly erupying permanent teeth but also avoid further complications like space loss and crowding. These simple appliances can help in avoiding future orthodontic treatments which are tedious, time cosuming and above all expensive.