Baby teeth in infants and kids are highly vulnerable to tooth decay as their enamel are not harder as permanent teeth. Such caries and decay lead the teeth to fall out earlier.
You may ask, “Permanent teeth can erupt only after the milk teeth fall out. Then, why we need to worry about that?”
Milk teeth are the space savers for our adult teeth. If a kid loses a milk tooth due to decay or injury, the adult tooth in that region cannot get sufficient space to erupt. Then the chances are higher for the tooth in that region grow in the improper position. It would lead to crooked or crowded teeth.
Similar to this, certain dental issues we encounter in childhood are effective to put our oral health at risk for our entire life. Habits that are common in childhood are the reason behind that oral complications.
Our Pediatric dentists have described some of them here. Let us see.
- Baby Bottle Tooth Decay
Feeding bottle is widely used to feed drinks like fruit juices, milk to infants. You know that the drinks are entered into the mouth slowly as the hole is minute in these bottles. Then your kid needs to sip the drink for a while.
In such cases, the sugary components present in the drink are constantly exposed to the teeth. It makes the particles deposit on the surface of the teeth.
As mentioned earlier, enamel of the baby teeth is less dense when compared to permanent teeth. Then the oral bacteria combined with the sugar particles and easily penetrate the teeth. It results in tooth decay.
If you prefer tooth extraction to overcome this, your kid will encounter early tooth loss.
Note:
- Use a wet cloth to rub your kid’s teeth as well as brushing at regular intervals.
- Don’t let your kid fall sleep with a bottle filled sugary drinks.
These are the simple things to overcome baby bottle tooth decay.
2. Tongue Thrusting
It is a habit common in childhood. Few people continue this even after attaining adulthood.
This is the habit of thrusting the tongue between the lips for a while or at times when the tongue is rest. It empowers the tongue to apply pressure against the upper front teeth.
Such pressure makes the teeth protrude and push out from the alignment. It obstructs the speech development of a kid and makes the infant feel difficult to pronounce certain words.
3. Thumb sucking
This is another habit common in children. You need not worry about this as it is normal. Similar to tongue thrusting, thumb sucking is also responsible for pushing the front teeth in upper jaw out of alignment. This results in protruding teeth.
The problem will arise if your kid continues this habit after attaining the age of 5 because the adult teeth begin to develop at this age. It will lead to protruding teeth, misalignment in upper & lower jaws.
4. Bruxism
The habit of grinding our teeth is known as bruxism. Few children have this habit in their developing stage of childhood. In general, this habit goes off when kids grow.
Some children cannot get rid of this even after attaining teenage. It is better to make them wear nightguards when they sleep. Otherwise, teeth grinding lead to suffering them with teeth sensitivity because constant grinding can weaken the teeth enamel and expose the teeth’s inner components.
5.Lip Sucking
It is the habit of holding the lower lip behind the upper front teeth. Similar to thumb sucking and tongue thrusting, it also applies an external force on the upper front teeth and makes them protrude.
The issues and consequences arise due to this include overbite, difficulties in speaking, etc.
Conclusion
Teach your kids good oral hygiene practices and take them for regular dental check-ups to assure the health of their teeth. Pediatric dental care is mandatory for everyone to safeguard his/her baby teeth which reserve the space in their mouth for teeth that last for their life.
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