Our doctors offer a range of oral and dental health services for children, from basic oral care to the treatment of serious dental injuries. You can find detailed information about pediatric dental treatments here.
Child Dental Examinations
Oral and dental examinations performed at an early age have many benefits. These examinations allow us to see and evaluate the condition of children’s teeth and gums. It allows us to solve children’s dental problems before they become big problems and to treat them early. It contributes to healthy teeth and good oral hygiene habits.
With these routine examinations, our doctors observe dental caries and traumas that parents and children may not be aware of, and make a caries risk assessment. In addition to the teeth, the tongue, cheeks and palate are checked for any problems. As a result of these detailed examinations, oral hygiene routine and necessary treatments are determined.
Preventive Dental Treatments
The best treatment is preventive treatment. Preventive dental care for children should be started at an early age. Preventive dental care starts with oral hygiene. When applying to our clinic for oral hygiene training; our doctors explain in detail the hygiene tools that should be used in routine oral care, describe to parents how to clean their children’s teeth, and advise when and how to switch to individual brushing.
As preventive dentistry treatments, we can count topical fluoride applications and fissure sealant treatments.
Fissure sealant application; It can be described as the obstruction of the caries path by closing the deep grooves and pits (without any abrasion on the teeth) on the chewing surfaces where the risk of caries is high, especially in children, with a filling-like material.
With topical fluoride application, the teeth become more resistant to caries. Since fluoride is applied directly to the tooth surface -it is not taken systemically- it does not cause any harm to the body.
Another advantage of this type of preventive dental treatments and routine examinations for children is that they ensure that the fear of the dentist (dentophobia) is overcome or even never started, as they are painless and short-term procedures.
The onset of tooth decay is caused by the childeren’s oral hygiene routine as well as their eating and drinking habits. When our doctors observe such conditions, they will also give nutritional and dietary advice to parents and children to ensure that the teeth and surrounding tissues remain healthy.
Should primary teeth be treated?
Even if primary teeth will eventually change, it’s important to keep them in the mouth until it’s time to fall naturally. When conditions such as caries, damage or trauma occur in primary teeth, our dentists determine the necessary treatments with a detailed examination and inform the parents.
Are Primary Teeth Important?
Primary teeth fall out at certain ages and are replaced by permanent teeth. If the necessary care is not taken, considering that they will change anyway, it means that a much more difficult process awaits both children and their families.
The chewing function in children is done with primary teeth. Tooth loss means disruption of the continuity of nutrition. Eating will be difficult for a child with toothless or painful teeth, and developmental delays will occur with reduced nutrition.
They act as placeholders for the permanent teeth that will replace the primary teeth. In cases where they are lost before the time of falling out, other teeth will close the space where the permanent tooth will come, so the teeth will become crooked or the permanent tooth will remain embedded because it cannot find a place for itself.
Early tooth loss in childhood, when speech development occurs, will impair the child’s speech quality and will initiate a pronunciation problem that is difficult to eliminate in later ages.
The primary teeth also contribute to the development of the jaw. In their early loss, jaw developmental delay and jaw-size problems will occur.
Another function of primary teeth is to provide aesthetics. A child who suffers tooth loss will become reluctant to smile and talk and will turn into an introverted, passive individual.
What Should Be Done?
Regular oral care should be done and the child should be given the habit of brushing teeth at a young age.
Protective treatments must be done. By taking precautions against tooth decay, the child will not suffer from a painful tooth, and because a much simpler method is applied, it will be ensured that the child overcomes the fear of the dentist.
When primary teeth decay, direct extraction should not be considered. While there are situations where extraction is required, primary teeth that need to stay in the mouth for a longer time should be kept in the mouth with filling or root canal treatment.
When primary teeth are lost for various reasons, you should not wait for the permanent tooth to replace it, and a dental check-up must be done immediately. How much time is left for the permanent tooth to erupt will be determined by your dentist by intraoral examination and x-rays, and a space maintainer will be applied if necessary.
Space Maintainers for Primary Teeth
What is a Space Maintainer?
Space maintainers are fixed or removable appliances that prevent the movement of other teeth into the space in early loss of primary teeth.
Dental caries, trauma to the teeth, etc. if the the primary teeth is lost before the eruption time of the permanent teeth due to such reasons, the need to protect this space until the permanent tooth is in place occurs. Otherwise, other teeth in the mouth will move towards this gap and close this area. Therefore, the permanent tooth, which cannot find a place for itself, will either create crowding or remain impacted by not erupting at all. This will cause a damaged dentition and will in fact create a need for orthodontic treatment that would not be needed if necessary precautions were taken.
How to Apply a Space Maintainer?
Space maintainers are planned and adapted in accordance with the individual tooth alignment with the help of oral impressions.
Is it Removable?
Not every tooth loss is the same. Space maintainers can be planned as fixed as well as removable forms. The space maintainer that needs to be done will be determined by the examination of your dentist and applied.
How Long Do Space Maintainers Have to Be in the Mouth?
After the space maintainer is adapted to the mouth, your dentist will give you a control appointment, and in these sessions, the oral examination will determine how close the permanent tooth is to erupt with the x-rays taken. The decision to replace or completely remove the space maintainer will be decided accordingly.
To get your appointment for PAEDIATRIC DENTAL TREATMENT from our dental clinic and professional dentists in Istanbul-TURKEY you can click the link below.
