Preventing dental emergencies in children

I saw on article on Facebook about a little girl in the UK who had to have 16 teeth pulled. It seemed like it was a kind of emergency situation. Is there a way to prevent this kind of thing from happnening, or was it a fluke situation?

Gillian A. – Baltimore, MD

Gillian,

This was a unique situation. In this particular case, the decay was caused by the mother allowing the child to have a bottle round the clock.  This will cause significant decay.

I’m not quite sure how it took the parents so long to notice something was wrong, because the article seems to indicate that the little girl was taking hours to eat her breakfast because of the pain. It must have been intollerable for the poor thing.

These kind of dental emergencies are easily prevented by taking a few simple steps:

First, begin taking your children for check up s as soon as their teeth come in.

Second, DO NOT let a child have a bottle as much as they want.  Especially don’t let them sleep with one.  The formula will pool around the teeth and gums and cause decay.

Finally, keep a look on their teeth to make sure nothing is going on with them.

These simple steps, can usually prevent a dental emergency in children.  Of course, there is always a losing battle with a light saber or a fight on the playground to worry about. But, short of that….

This blog is brought to you by Gilbert Dentist Dr. Matt Roper.

Cleaning CEREC crowns

I had a lot of damaged amalgam fillings nad my teeth degraded further. As a result I needed crowns.  I opted for CEREC ones to save on appointment time. My two rear molars continually trap food. Sometimes floss helps, but not always.  Is there a different method with crowns for getting food out?

Jen H. – Little Rock

Jen,

Dental floss holders can sometimes help you reach places that are tougher to without them, but that is not really your problem.  Go back to your dentist and let him or her know what is going on.  The margins to your CEREC crowns were left open on your crown.

If that’s not repaired your going to end up getting decay under there. If that happens, your crowns will have to be re-done at your expense.

If you go back now and your dentist fixes the mistake (at his own expense), you’ll be much happier.

This blog is brought to you by Gilbert Dentist Dr. Matt Roper.