Your baby’s mouth is very important. Your baby not only uses its mouth for eating, but also for communicating its needs, expressing its feelings and exploring its world. For this reason guidance and care are necessary from a very early age.
You should bring your baby for its first dental visit by its first birthday.
At this visit, we will explain proper brushing and flossing techniques and conduct a modified exam while your baby sits on your lap. Such visits can help in the early detection of potential problems. Your child will also get used to visiting the dentist.
Early examination and preventive care will protect your child's smile now and in the future.
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends a dental check-up at least twice
a year for most children. They help your child stay cavity free.
Teeth cleanings remove debris that builds up on the teeth, irritate the gums and cause decay. Fluoride treatments renew the fluoride content of the enamel, strengthening the teeth and preventing cavities.
Cavities are caused by bacteria and food that are left on the teeth after eating. When these are not brushed away, acid collects on the tooth, softening its enamel until a hole forms. Regular use of fluoride toughens the enamel, making it more difficult for acid to penetrate.
As your child's permanent teeth grow in, we can help seal out decay by applying a protective coating to the back teeth, known as a sealant. Sealants can reduce cavities as much as 90%. They help protect the grooved and pitted surfaces of the teeth, especially the chewing surfaces of the back teeth that are difficult or impossible to clean and where children most often develop cavities.
We paint a thin layer of a plastic like hard material on these teeth's biting surfaces, thus filling in the grooves and providing a smooth brushing area. Usually sealants are applied on permanent molars right after eruption around the age of six. They last for many years and protect teeth throughout the most cavity prone time. The application of sealants is quick and comfortable, and is completed in a single visit. Lost or damaged sealants can easily be replaced and repaired. More sealants are applied at the age of twelve with the growth of additional molars.
Today, with good oral hygiene, regular dental care, proper diet, and sealants, children have the opportunity to go through life cavity free.
A baby tooth usually stays in until the permanent tooth underneath pushes it out. Some children however loose a baby tooth prematurely: it might be knocked out accidentally or removed because of dental disease. If a baby tooth is lost too soon, the teeth beside it might tilt or drift into the empty space. When that happens, there is a lack of space in the jaw and the permanent teeth are crowded and come in crooked.
When this happens a space maintainer may be required to prevent future dental problems. They encourage normal development of the jaw bones and muscles, save space for permanent teeth and help guide them into position.
A space maintainer is an appliance made of metal, custom fit to your child’s mouth, to maintain space intended for the permanent tooth when it decides to come in. The empty space left by a lost tooth is kept open by preventing movement of the remaining teeth, until the permanent tooth takes its natural position in your child’s mouth. A space maintainer is more affordable and much more child friendly and may help prevent orthodontic procedures at a later stage. Space maintainers can be as guarantee against braces.
General Anesthetic Dental Treatment
Children with severe anxiety and/or inability to cooperate are candidates for general anesthetic dental treatment. These could be children who are very young, have compromised health or special needs. They usually require extensive dental treatment and their anxiety cannot be controlled by conscious sedation techniques.
General anesthesia is a management technique that makes the child unconscious and asleep while receiving dental care. The dentist can provide all the treatment necessary in one session and the patient will have completed all the work needed without the discomfort. It is provided by a physician who has special training in anesthesia and is usually provided in the hospital. Dr. Tleel uses the Amman Surgical Hospital for her cases.
This
is a procedure that can be used in the clinic with a very fearful child.
It utilizes a gas called nitrous oxide (laughing gas) that is
introduced through the nose. It
has no side effect. The gas has a minor sweet smell. It is quickly
absorbed through the lungs and it quickly leaves the system after the
procedure. It changes the
awareness of your child and decreases its motor function.
In other words your child relaxes but it is still awake and can interact with its surroundings. The procedure can be reversed at any moment which makes it safe. The experience of your child is a pleasant one with some memories of the appointment but no details.
Dental injuries are the most common oral facial injury in sports, where teeth are knocked out or broken during sporting activities. These accidents can be prevented with a custom made high quality mouthpiece. Mouth guards should be worn while playing any sport that involves physical contact or the possibility of falling, from organized sports to activities with friends such as football, baseball, basketball, tennis, squash, bicycling etc.
The mouth guards are all made from impressions taken at the clinic of the child teeth and then custom made in a laboratory from multi-laminated materials for maximum protection and comfort. These differ from those sold in stores that use the technique of boiling and biting. These, however, give little or no protection because when biting, the material between the teeth is displaced and that is what is needed to cushion the teeth.
Oral
habits are any thumb, finger, tongue or pacifier habits that can cause
damage to the normal growth and development of your child’s teeth.
Most children stop the sucking habit between ages two and four.
No permanent harm is done to their teeth or jaws.
However, some children continue much longer and these children
could develop problems, such as an open
bite, movement of the upper and lower front teeth in
the wrong direction and the narrowing of the upper jaw.
The pediatric dentist can suggest steps necessary to prevent oral habits. A mouth appliance can be made that is specifically designed to block the specific habit they have.
Sometimes injuries, trauma or cavities occur in the front teeth. Modern technology has developed a way of filling or fixing teeth with a tooth colored material, so that it is possible to do the repairs without the extensive work of capping or crowning. Tooth colored fillings are made from durable plastics called composite resins. They are similar in color and texture to natural teeth, the fillings are less noticeable and much more attractive. Your child can smile, talk and eat with confidence and not worry about appearance any longer.
Many special children are extremely susceptible to dental disease or oral injury, while others require medication or special diets which may be detrimental to dental health. These children can benefit from many of the same preventive measures recommended for all children.
Since the Toothland Clinic also employs a general dentist, we do accept adult patients during certain hours of the day and by appointment only.