Pediatric Dentistry | Dentists in Swansea, IL

Gentle Care for Your Child

Dentistry is important for everyone. But children require special care to get their oral health started on the right track. Pediatric dentistry focuses on treating children from the time their first tooth emerges, which is usually around their first birthday.

Your child’s mouth goes through a lot of changes during their early years, so special attention is required to ensure that both their primary teeth and their adult teeth are growing in properly. This is just one more way our dentists protect your child’s smile at Corner Stone Dental.

Pediatric Care: For a Healthy Smile to Last a Lifetime

Education

Dental education helps your child appreciate why oral care is necessary and how prevention is the most important part of dental hygiene. Our friendly staff has fun and easy ways to counsel your child on effective brushing and flossing as well as promoting other essential habits for maintaining a beautiful smile.

Monitoring Growth

Using our advanced diagnostic and imaging equipment, we’ll monitor your child’s dental development. That way, we’re able to anticipate potential issues and actively intervene before they pose a serious threat to your child’s smile.

Prevention

During regular checkups and cleanings, we’ll work to prevent oral diseases such as tooth decay and gum disease from forming. If you request it, we can apply dental sealants and topical fluoride treatments for extra protection against tooth decay. We also offer strategies to reduce thumbsucking and pacifier use and we’ll be happy to demonstrate effective oral care habits for your child.

Intervention

When necessary, we can provide early oral treatments such as space maintainers or mouthguards for malocclusion (a bad bite) or bruxism (teeth clenching and grinding). We also treat oral injuries.

Your Child’s Regular Checkups

Visiting Corner Stone Dental for a regular appointment every six months ensures your child will receive the care they need. It will also familiarize them with our dental team. As they start to feel more comfortable with our friendly team members, your child will be less apprehensive about visiting the dentist. Regular appointments also allow us to closely monitor the state of your child’s smile.

When we regularly track your child’s dental progress, we can better prevent painful dental issues. The earlier we discover cavities, poor alignment, or any other type of problem, the easier they are to treat.

We’ll also provide a thorough professional cleaning to prevent cavities and keep your child’s smile feeling fresh.

The Importance of Primary Teeth

A child’s primary teeth will ultimately be replaced by adult teeth, but it’s still important to care for their first set of teeth. This will reduce your child’s chances of getting cavities in their adult teeth and it also helps prevent alignment issues in the future.

Learning to speak correctly is crucial for your child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. Proper positioning of primary teeth makes it easier for kids to speak properly and develop good speech habits. This is essential for academic success and social well-being.

Proper chewing motions progress over time, and healthy primary teeth aid in this development. Unfortunately, children with damaged or severely decayed teeth are more likely to experience dietary deficiencies, malnourishment, and be underweight.

Your child’s peers are likely to notice your child’s teeth if they’re appearance is outside the norm. An unattractive smile and difficulty speaking are two issues that can impact the way your child feels about themself. This can prevent them from thriving during childhood, setting them up for further difficulty.

One of the most important functions of primary teeth is to create space for developing adult teeth, ensuring proper alignment of the adult teeth and natural jawbone development. Alignment issues with primary teeth can cause other teeth to shift. This impacts the alignment of your child’s adult teeth.

Decayed primary teeth can mean the onset of childhood periodontal disease, in which oral bacteria invade the gums, ligaments, and eventually, the bone. A child’s primary teeth can fall out completely as a result, leading to further health issues.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pediatric dentistry is recommended for children as soon as teeth start growing in and up until the age of 12 or 13, when the last adult teeth grow in. Your child can continue seeing a pediatric dentist throughout their teenage years to simplify their care. At our office, we treat patients of all ages, so you won’t have to worry about changing dentists for your child as they grow up.

Dental sealants provide an extra layer of protection against cavities. Sealants are usually recommended for children ages five to fourteen when they’re most vulnerable to cavities. But our dentists may recommend sealants for older patients as well. For example, adults who have teeth that are difficult to clean or a history of tooth decay can also benefit from sealants.

Most children can brush their own teeth once they’re around six years old. Before then, your child may not be dextrous enough to navigate the toothbrush in their mouth properly. While your six-year-old may be able to handle the toothbrush, they still may need help flossing.

Pediatric Dentistry in Swansea, IL

Gentle Care for Your Child

Pediatric Care: For a Healthy Smile to Last a Lifetime

Education

Monitoring Growth

Prevention

Intervention

Your Child’s Regular Checkups

The Importance of Primary Teeth

Learning to Speak Properly

Eating and Nutrition

Self-Confidence

Early Development

Oral Health

Frequently Asked Questions

At what age is considered pediatric dentistry?

When are dental sealants recommended?

At what age can a child brush his or her own teeth?

A Healthy Start for Your Child

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