Pacifier Weaning System

Having trouble getting your child to stop sucking a pacifier? Looking for a way to get them to stop without all the tears and drama?

Look no further!!!

A fellow Pediatric Dentist and mom of four has come out with a new pacifier weaning system. Five pacifiers that look identical but each nipple is just a tad different than the other. At your own pace, you switch pacifiers until you get to pacifier number 5. At this point, your child will have lost the need to have a pacifier all together and then it is Bye-Bye Paci!!!!

Here is a picture of what the pacifiers look like! You can see that you start out with a normal paci, but you gradually go down to nothing!! Each child is different and some will take longer than others to get to step 5 but don't be discouraged!! Some children have stopped in as little as 5 days and others in 5 weeks!

This system is available online at ONESTEPAHEAD.COM

Head on over and check them out and give us feedback on how long it took your child to stop! We love to hear from you guys about our posts!!

Disney Magic Timer app

We know that there are PLENTY of parents out there who have a lot of difficulty getting their kids to brush their teeth! And getting them EXCITED about brushing their teeth?? You can forget that!!

Thankfully our friends at Disney have partnered with Crest and Oral-B and created a fun new app that allows your kids to interact with their favorite Disney characters while brushing their teeth!!

Can we just first give a huge THANK YOU to Disney, Crest and Oral-B???

This app is not only a game, but it is also a timer that helps your child to brush for two minutes, while unlocking a secret photo that is stored in their own personal photo album on the app!!

Having kids brushing better could mean better dentist check-ups for them (and your wallet :))!!

Here is how to get started:
Download the FREE app at your Itunes or Goggle play app store
Scan any Pro-Health Stages product
Watch your favorite characters come to life!!!

If you have more than one child with different character toothbrushes?? Have one child scan his/hers and play, then have the others follow suite!! It is so easy and fun!!

Want to see more??? simply click on the link below and watch the tutorial presented by Disney, Crest and Oral-B.
http://www.oralb.com/stages/disney-timer-app

Earth Day 2014

Did you know that if you leave the water running when brushing your teeth you are wasting approximately 5 gallons of water? Sounds small but consider this: If you are brushing twice a day as recommended by your dentist, you are wasting 10 gallons of drinking water in one day; 280 gallons over one month; 3360 gallons over one year! A family of four would use the equivalent of a 24' round above ground swimming pool: 13440 gallons of water just brushing their teeth! (1)

So what are some ways we can conserve energy and water and recycle???

We can start by shutting our water off when we brush our teeth!! This will save (as seen in the above paragraph) an astonishing amount of water!!!

How about those old mouthwash bottles?? We can keep those and take them to the recycling bins in our areas! If you are not sure where your local recycle bins are, ALL Whole Foods Markets have them outside their doors!! You can drop them off there! They even take your old yogurt containers!!

Do you have an electric toothbrush?? Once you see that the toothbrush is fully charged, unplug it to save energy!

Regular toothbrushes? KEEP them!! Parents, you can use these to clean those tiny spaces around your house! such as the grout in your bathroom, the tile in the shower and even your jewelry!!!

Switch to canvas totes for groceries instead of plastic/paper bags! Keep your old yogurt containers as leftover containers (That's what I do :))

These are just a few helpful tips that we found when searching the internet! Do you have any other helpful ideas for us?? Leave your tips in the comment section below!!

Want to celebrate Earth Day?? There is an Earth Day Festival in Downtown Baton Rouge going on Sunday April 27th from 12-5:30 and then live music until 8:30!!!











(1) http://dentistry.about.com/b/2009/04/22/earth-day-dental-care-how-much-water-do-you-waste.htm

April is National Facial Protection Month

Can anyone else believe that it is April already?????

 

 Spring is upon us and April is National Facial Protection Month! Research has shown that about 2% of all children who play sports will eventually suffer a severe enough facial injury to require medical attention.(1)

 

The Academy for Sports Dentistry (ASD), American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS), American Association of Orthodontists (AAO)and the American Dental Association (ADA) are all working together to promotoe National Facial Protection Month. They are trying to raise awareness and remind parents, coaches and athletes to protect your mouth and play safe while playing sports. (2)

 

We as Pediatric Dentists see so many mouth injuries. Whether it is from kids pushing other kids, kids falling down while playing, or kids getting hit in the face during sports, we have seen it all. And while we cannot prevent kids from being pushed down or make sure they never fall, we can help prevent facial injuries due to sports. According to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry's Policy on Prevention of sports related orafacial injuries, sports accidents reportedly account for 10 to 39 percent of all dental injuries in children and are most often caused by direct hits with a hard object, such as a puck or ball, and player-to-player contact[3].

 

Ways to prevent facial injuires are:

1. Wear a mouth guard when playing contact sports. You can buy them at any drug or sports store and you can even special order them. They do tend to get pretty pricey if you are looking into custom made ones. Whatever the price, you will definitely not regret having a mouth guard during sports.

2. Wear a helmet. They act as a shock absorber and will take the brunt of the hit.

3. Wear protective eyewear. As much as we care about teeth, we also care about your eyes and we especially do not want there to be any damage to them. Eyes are very vulnerable to damage during sports.

 4. Wear a face shield. they will help to avoid scratched/bruised skin.

 5. Make protective gear mandatory for ALL sports. Mouth guards are only REQUIRED in football hockey and boxing, but how many times have you seen a child be hit in the face with a baseball and suffer an injury? Too mnay to name. If you are a coach or a parent, make your child wear a mouthguard. Your players/children will thank you in the future when they have beautiful teeth.

 

Now that we have gone over ways to prevent facial injuries we want to help you and fill you in on what to do if there is a facial injury.

Fractured/broken or knocked out tooth:

If the tooth is fractured or broken, find the pieces and place them in a cup of milk. Call your dentist (hopefully us) within 24 hrs and we may be able to reattach the tooth. If not we will certainly do all we can to save it.

If the tooth is knocked out, you must immediately do two things. Place the tooth in a cup of milk and call your dentist!!! Time is ESSENTIAL in this case. If you can get to us within an hr of it happening we may be able to replant the tooth. Facial cuts or cuts inside the mouth:

Rinse with cold water

Apply pressure to the wound.

 If it is inside the mouth have your child bite down on cotton.

Apply an ice pack

Call your dentist (again hopefully us) and we can figure out if child needs stitches or if it is ok without.

 

 If we are your dentist, our office number is (225) 769-1969 and both Dr's numbers are on the answering machine. If your child suffers a facial/oral injury after hours or on weekends etc., feel free to call the office then contact them by their cell numbers and we will do all we can to help you and your child.

 

 

(1) http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Maxillofacial_Trauma.aspx

(2) http://www.aapd.org/april_is_national_facial_protection_month/

(3)SOURCE: Newsome P, Tran D, Cooke M. The role of the mouth-guard in the prevention of sports-related dental injuries: A review. Int J Paediatr Dent 2001;11(6):396-404

Tooth Fairy

Tooth Fairy Season is upon us!!!

As some of you may know, we at Pediatric Dental Specialists have a resident Tooth Fairy!!! Every year starting in January and ending in March (sometimes April), our Tooth Fairy goes to schools in the area to talk to kids about proper oral hygiene! She brings some friends along to help her, along with toothbrushes and a kid friendly information packet on proper brushing and flossing. The information packet also has a page for parents on what they can do to better improve their kids hygiene and prevent cavities!!

Is the Tooth Fairy coming to your kids school this year? If not have your school call us and we would be more than happy to have her come and meet y'all!!!

Our office number is (225) 769-1969!

Oral Hygiene

We know that a lot of parents out there are new parents, and therefore want different opinions for what is right for their child. We have a little set of guidelines that we like to go over with all of our new patient's and their parents, and we thought we would share that with you today on our blog!

• Children need to have their first dental visit by age 1. This can just be a consult, a meet and greet, whatever you need it to be in order for you to get a better understanding of how to help your child's teeth progress in a healthy way.
• Once you have met some dentists and felt comfortable with one of them, establish a "dental home." This way your child is not being shuffled from one dentist to another and can grow comfortable with the dentist. A lot of children are afraid of the dentist and this is normal. Developing that relationship with a dentist will help your child to not only become unafraid of the dentist, but also actually like to go to the dentist.
• Once you have established a "dental home," start making routine visits to your dentist twice a year.
• As soon as your child's first tooth appears, immediately begin brushing with just a smear of toothpaste. This will not only aid in the growth and development, but also start getting them in the habit of brushing at an early age.
• Don't put your child to bed with milk, or sugary drinks. The milk or sugary drinks will stay on your child's teeth over night and therefore cause those cavities that we are trying to prevent by brushing their teeth.
• When you start potty training, we know it is easier to bribe them with candy. AVOID ALL STICKY CANDIES. These include but are not limited to: Starbursts, fruit roll-ups, skittles, and gummy bears. these sticky candies can sit on your chiuld's teeth and cause cavities. If candy is your way to bribe them, try M&M's. Chocolate melts and does not sit on your child's teeth.
• Around the age of 2 start using a fluoride toothpaste. There is no fluoride in our water here in Baton Rouge so the only fluoride they are getting is from toothpaste and the fluoride treatments your dentist uses.

These are our basic guidlines for all of our new patients. If you have any other questions or just want to come by and check us out, call us at (225) 769-1969. We would love to meet you and have you choose us for your "dental home."

Chocolate Toothpaste

We recently came across an article that we thought our patient's would be interested in hearing! We know that a lot of moms out there are looking for products that have more natural ingredients and here is one!

About 30 years ago,  a New Orleans Lab discovered a substance that challenges fluoride.Dr. Tetsuo Nakamoto discovered "Theobromine" in chocolate and has since then worked to put that in toothpaste. The substance is safer for children to swallow because it is made from chocolate and is all natural.

 The substance is now available in "Theodent" toothpaste. according to Theodent CEO, Dr. Aman Sadeghpour, "Theodent is a fluoride free toothpaste. Rennou, our active ingedient works better to re-mineralize the surface of human teeth." Sadeghpour is also quoted in the article as saying "Fluoride has been the gold standard in oral care for 100 years. there hasn't been any substance to challenge fluoride in a century. That's crazy. In all other aspects of technology you constantly see innovation, a new Iphone every two or three years, but in toothpaste it has been the same."

The toothpaste is available at Theodent.com or at Whole Foods Market, and the children's flavor is chocolate. I know a lot of our patient's that will be thrilled to have chocolate toothpaste :)! And for those adults out there who would like to try it, it is available in Mint for the grown-ups!

You can find the original article at www.wbrz.com/news.

What do you think about this new substance? Do you think you will try this product out as an alternative instead of fluoride?

It is important that the children in the Baton Rouge area are getting fluoride from their toothpaste because we do not have it in our water. And remember only use a pea size amount!