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!

Permanent tooth or Baby tooth??

I was calling a patient back at work a couple days ago and the parent entered our consult room with the child and seemed terribly concerned. The parent mentioned the child sucked her thumb and it was ruining her permanent teeth. Looking at the patient's information, I noticed the patient had just made five years old. Although it is possible, most kids her age don't completely have their upper permanent teeth in the front. I explained to the parent to not worry and that it all could be fixed. After taking the patient to the back and sitting her in the exam chair I immediately looked and saw the patient had all primary (baby) teeth. Then, I got to thinking, most parents don't know the development of their child's teeth. I didn't know the development of teeth until I started studying the world of dentistry. So today, I am going to have a quick overview of when children's teeth begin to erupt, how many teeth they get, when they begin to exfoliate and how many permanent teeth they get to replace the primary teeth.

On average your child's first tooth should erupt between 6-8 months of age. There are cases where children are born with teeth, also called neonatal teeth. Some children don't get their first tooth until after a year old. Although that may not be the average it is not abnormal. I always remind parents, boys tend to develop slower than girls. The first teeth to come in are the lower central incisors (front two teeth in the middle, see charts below) or the upper central incisors. Then, the lateral incisors (upper or lower). There are rare cases where we see teeth erupting out of sequence, meaing the canines erupt before the laterals. Once again although this is not within the average of most children it is not abnormal or mean there is a problem. After the front four (top and bottom) are in, the 1st molars will erupt, canines and the 2nd molars will follow. Your child should get 20 teeth total by the age of three.

Around age 6 children began to lose and gain teeth. The central lower incisors (see chart below) are usually the first to fall out. Most of the time children's teeth will fall out in the order they erupt. Children tend to lose all the incisors (front teeth) and then their development takes a 1-2 year hiatus and the molars/canines will exfoliate. But noticed I mentioned that children also gain teeth at this age. A child's 1st secondary molars begin to erupt around age 6, commonly known as 6 year molars. Children do not lose any teeth in replacement of the teeth erupting. They erupt in the very back of the mouth, 1 tooth in each quadrant. We get several calls a day from parents concerned because their child is in pain or they see "half" of a tooth in the back of their mouth. All of these symptoms are normal, it is as if the child is going through teething all over again. You can administer motrin/advil, etc. to help with your child's discomfort. Around age 9, your child should begin to exfoliate the remainder of the primary teeth and should be finished losing teeth around age 13. Around age 12, another set of molars erupt behind the 6 year molars called the 2nd molars. This gives your child 28 teeth total. Most commonly known as wisdom teeth, the 3rd molars can erupt around the age of 17 but are usually extracted surgically because our jaws do not accomodate the space needed. Your dentist should evaluate the wisdom teeth around age 17. If the wisdom teeth do erupt and remain on will have 32 teeth total.

There are several cases where some are congentially missing teeth whether baby or permanent. Most orthodontist can adjust to this happening and still make your remaining teeth natural and symetrical. For any other questions about development of teeth you can check out ada.org or call us at 225-769-1969.

This chart depicts the dentition of permanent teeth.

This chart depicts the dentition of the primary (baby) teeth.

Saying Bye-Bye to that Pacifier and Finger Habit!

A Pacifier can be your child's first love. Your child's thumb or fingers can make any rough situation better. As parents we all know this and dislike the actual habit, but use it to our advantage as it soothes our kids and us! A five minute break from crying or screaming can make our lives so much more peaceful. This topic is something parents debate often before their child is even born.

Introducing a pacifier can lead to a quick solution for having a quiet, mellow household or shopping trip, but breaking the habit could be harder than expected.  Richard Powell, PhD, a pediatric neuropsychologist says babies are born with an innate need to suck.  Newborns rely on this "suck reflex" not only for sustenance but also for soothing. At this age, babies have no other mechanism to control their discomfort. Therefore, babies will suck and if not on a pacifier, then they tend to suck on fingers, thumb, bottles, etc. It is recommended for breastfeeing moms to introduce breast feeding first and make sure your baby has the hang of it then if needed he/she can be introduced to a pacifier. Though there are many opinions on whether to even start using a pacifier, experts agree that the use of pacifiers are suitable for soothing your baby.  However, it is recommended by most pediatric dentist to reduce pacifier time by age one and eliminate pacifier use by age two. Although there haven't been many proven pros to using pacifiers, one well known reason is it has been found in some studies that using a pacifier can reduce the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). One con is the increased risk for ear infections. Researchers have linked pacifiers to this illness, however some researchers believe the ear infections can be linked to children using unclean pacifiers which leads to colds/congestion that can cause fluid in the ear. The con pediatric dentist see is the abnormality in a patient's bite. Pacifer use can cause a child to have an open bite (when the upper front teeth and lower front teeth do not touch) or cross bite (when the back top teeth don't extend out further than the lower back teeth when biting). There are pre-orthodontic appliances to correct the cross bite, but the only way to cprrect the open bite is to kick the habit early.  Problems, such as speech, chewing, appearance, can occur if the habit is not gone early (mostly by age 2-3). Here are some options to help get rid of the pacifier:

1) Cold turkey- pick a week or weekend that you as a parent can spare some extra sleep. Simply take away the pacifier. Your child may cry and demand the pacifier but stay strong and find other ways to sooth your child, a stuffed animal, blanket, etc.

2) Cut the end of the tip. This will create a diversion for the child trying to suck the nipple. If all pacifiers are cut, the child may forget about it and move on.

3) During a holiday let a special someone (Santa, Easter Bunny) take the pacifiers to give to other children that need them, or if a friend/relative is having a baby he/she can "pass" them down to the other child. Children tend to be giving!

If you notice your child beginning to suck their finger/thumb in place of the pacifier, it may be better to give them their pacifier back. It is easier to take away a pacifer then a thumb!!

Now, to tackle those with thumb/finger habits! As mentioned above it is very natural for a baby to suck their thumb, toes, pacifier, bottle, etc. This is a soothing habit. Unfortunately some children become very attached to the habit and it becomes extremely hard to quit. Most thumb/finger habit children that continue the habit after infancy tend to be aware of their habit and use it most during stessful times, when they are sleepy, or sometimes don't even know they are doing it all! One of the most common statements we get from parents is that their child has quit the habit except when they sleep. Parents say that their child is subconsciously sucking their thumb or fingers at night.  Most children do stop the habit on their own, but there are still several children that need assistance. Finger/thumb habits can cause the same tooth abnormalities as pacifiers (open bite, cross bite), but it can sometimes cause damage to the child's hands. There have been numerous reports of children developing calluses or sores on the fingers they are sucking. Some of these sores have led to staph or yeast infections, in one case a child had to have their thumb amputated. For those chldren who are still sucking their fingers at night while sleeping we recommend to parents to put a sock around the child's hand(s) and lightly tape it (or use an apparatus to keep the sock from being pulled off) around their wrist to see if that keeps the child from putting their fingers in their mouth. For children who suck their fingers/thumb during the day there are few recommendations. One is to try a reward system. Everytime the child is happy and calm and not sucking their fingers/thumb reward them with a small prize (ice cream, stickers, book). Try not to fuss child for sucking their fingers/thumb becausing causing stress or discomfort will cause the child to revert to sucking their thumb/finger. Next, you can buy Mavala Stop on amazon.com. It is a topical spray that leaves a horrible taste in the child's mouth therefore reminding the child not to put their fingers/thumb in their mouth. A last resort is a finger habit appliance from the dentist. It is a more expensive option and is only a reminder to children to stop sucking their thumb or fingers. It has guards that are suspended from a wire that fits into their mouth like a retainer. The guards help to create a barrier so the child cannot form a suction with their fingers or thumb in their mouth.

Whatever method you choose to kick either habits just remember to stay strong and weather the storm. It will most likely be bad for a few nights but it will get better. Giving in to negative behavior and demands will only encourage that kind of behavior. For questions/concerns remember you can always call PDS at 225-769-1969.

Juvenile Grinding

One of the most common complaints we get from parents is their child grinds their teeth. This habit, known as bruxism, is actually very common in children. Yes, it can be very aggrevating and the noise grinding prooduces can make one want to clinch their own teeth. However, the best thing to do is let it go and let your child sleep. At each dental visit we evaluate the structure of the teeth to ensure grinding is not affecting the child's bite. Whenever we do notice "wear" on the teeth we always note it in the chart to re-evaluate the grinding at the patient's next visit. Some think stress can induce a child grinding their teeth.  Although it has not been proven or clear as to why grinding occurs in children we do our best to remind parents that it is okay and to not worry. Here is an article about buxism and some routines to help reduce grinding. If you or your child has any questions or concerns about grinding, you can always call our office, 225-769-1969.

Buxism (Teeth Grinding)