Preserving Your Baby’s Dental Health
Early doctoring comes to mind easily for parents with newborn babies. But the one thing that escapes many of them is to make sure the baby has proper dental care. Preserving your baby’s dental health is paramount to the overall health of the child. It’s been recommended by the Academy of Pediatric Dentistry that as soon as the child’s first tooth appears, dental visits should begin.
It may sound at first like a racket to soak you out of some money. But in truth, the ‘first tooth’ visit is crucial to the proper forming of oral and facial development. It also gives the dentist and the parents an opportune time to map out a good schedule for the baby to get proper dental care.
Most people don’t realize that tooth decay is the most common childhood disease. If a baby has to take medications at that early stage, it’s even more of a problem. Tooth decay, even at these very early stages can cause serious problems for the child.
In today’s world, with the economy low and family budgets pinched, only three out of five children visit their dentist once in a year. Money causes the parents to put the dental visits off. The sad part is that the children who do manage to see their dentists before the age of one, have 40% lower dental costs than those who don’t. This again proves the point that preventive care leads to both sound health and good economic decisions.
When assessing a child´s ideal body weight’ in relation to their age, the impact caused by tooth decay is mind staggering. One study showed that kids with cavities were more likely to weigh as much as 80% of their ideal body weight. Poor oral health can not only affect a child at its age now, but can be a health factor throughout the child’s life.
It can increase the risk of the developing heart disease or having a stroke, as well as having babies of their own that are below ideal weight themselves.
A good pediatric dentist is well-equipped to care for primary teeth in the young toddlers of today. They must qualify by completing two to three years of advanced training, and this is ‘after’ dental school. This is preparation for addressing the needs of children and adolescents. So by going in for the ‘Baby first-tooth‘ checkup, you do your child a good service, and set the child on its way to a more healthy and rewarding life experience.
