With so many demands on your time and funds as a parent, you choose priorities. Ideally, you’d focus on things that will have long-term effects on your child’s well-being and skip over things that are short lived or temporary. For instance, it may make more sense to get your baby’s clothes from a secondhand store or use hand-me-downs from a relative than buy brand-new because little ones grow so quickly.
However, when it comes to fillings for baby teeth, this “temporary” set of dentition still deserves attention and care. Continue reading to learn about restoration and maintenance for baby teeth.
Are Fillings for Baby Teeth Necessary?
Similar to permanent dentition, primary teeth are susceptible to acids and bacteria. Their layer of enamel is much thinner and smaller than adult teeth, which means it may take less for them to develop decay. In certain situations, just a little cavity has afflicted the tooth, which can be removed, and a small portion of composite resin can restore the baby tooth. Otherwise, it will need to be extracted to prevent spread to other teeth.
Tiny or not, teeth can be better preserved when the least invasive treatment is performed. In other words, the more conservative care, the longer your natural smile lasts!
Why Are Baby Teeth Worth Preserving?
By age 12 typically, most children will lose all their baby teeth. As a result, it may feel like a waste of time and resources to pay for a filling on a primary tooth. Why shouldn’t you just get rid of it?
Baby teeth serve multiple purposes that you can’t always make up for when the tooth is lost prematurely. Primary teeth not only enable your child to bite and chew various foods early in life, but they also guide the permanent teeth where they are supposed to go. Without a baby tooth in its socket, the permanent one may not align properly, resulting in more intensive orthodontic treatment in the future.
How Can Your Child’s Baby Teeth Be Protected?
To keep your child’s tiny baby teeth in excellent condition, you must continue to brush and floss with them daily to remove plaque. Regular visits starting at a young age to their family dentist can also get your kiddo excited to care for their smile. This team can teach your child how to brush and floss properly, explain why daily care is so important, and give advice for better at-home care.
Other healthy protective habits include wearing a mouthguard if they play sports with contact, like football and hockey, as well as sports that aren’t supposed to involve contact but invariably do, such as basketball and soccer.
Although their baby teeth will eventually come out on their own, your child deserves to have a healthy, strong smile throughout childhood. These little “temporary” pieces of enamel are worth investing your time and effort into to teach your child about lifelong oral health.
About the Practice
Williamsburg Dental welcomes patients of all ages, including the very young and elderly. Our general dentists and friendly staff strive to make our six office locations in Lincoln as comfortable and family friendly as possible. We take time to educate kids in a fun way, motivating them to take good care of their teeth and gums well into adulthood. If you would like to schedule an appointment with one of our talented, highly trained and experienced dentists, contact your preferred location.