Pediatric Dentistry: Caring for Young Smiles
At Origin Dental, we're proud to provide comprehensive pediatric dental care for patients from infancy through young adulthood, and our family dental practice can even continue caring for your child after they are all grown up.
The goal of pediatric dentistry is the same as general dentistry, keeping our patients' teeth and gums optimally healthy. However, pediatric dentistry also focuses on helping young patients grow and develop properly by preventing oral health issues from arising and providing interceptive treatments to prevent the need for more invasive treatments in adulthood.
With pediatric dental care, dentists and hygienists also work closely with parents to tailor our approach to treatment based on the patient's age and any unique needs they might have. We use smaller dental care tools for younger patients, take a slow and gentle approach, explain the dental appointment process thoroughly, and ensure that our patients feel comfortable, safe, and calm during their appointments.
In addition to preventative care, pediatric dentistry also places a strong emphasis on patient education. Each child's dental appointment provides our team an opportunity to help our patients learn about the importance of dental care while developing strong oral hygiene habits and understanding how their oral health and general health are connected.
We recommend that most children visit the dentist every six months for a dental examination, gum evaluation, development monitoring, and prophylaxis cleaning (gently scaling and polishing the teeth to remove calculus).
Depending on your child's fluoride exposure and tooth enamel strength, we might recommend professional fluoride treatments in our office. During these applications, we paint a varnish containing medical-strength fluoride on your child's teeth. This remineralizes and strengthens the tooth enamel, helping to reverse early tooth decay and prevent cavities.
We recommend applying dental sealants on all permanent molars. Dental sealants are made of tooth-colored composite resin. They consist of a thin layer, painted onto the chewing surfaces of the molars. The sealant fills in the crevices, making teeth easier to clean and helping to prevent food debris, plaque, and bacteria from becoming stuck, eventually causing tooth decay and cavities.
Digital dental X-rays, taken periodically, allow our dentist to assess your child's development. With dental X-rays, we can screen for early signs of oral health issues while also evaluating your child's development, as permanent teeth form and begin to erupt. X-rays can help us determine if interceptive orthodontics might be needed to prevent overcrowding and impacted teeth.
If your child does develop an oral health problem like a cavity, we provide comprehensive care to address these issues, eliminate symptoms, and restore the form, function, and health of your child's smile.
Very young patients can benefit from developmental assessments and guidance. For example, we can help parents address issues such as lip-tie or tongue-tie, thumb-sucking, pacifier use, and teething. Additionally, we can provide guidance to help parents provide balanced nutrition to their children to ensure good jawbone development and healthy teeth and gums.
Around age seven, all children should have an orthodontic evaluation. During this evaluation, we take advanced diagnostic images of your child's jawbones and teeth in addition to evaluating their function and mobility. We use this information to determine if your child might benefit from early orthodontic treatment. These treatments are designed to support healthy growth and development, preventing the need for more complex and severe orthodontic treatments in the future.
Throughout childhood, children go through several dental milestones, as permanent teeth replace their primary (baby teeth) and their permanent molars begin to develop and erupt. We can help you and your child navigate each of these milestones, finishing with their third molars (wisdom teeth).
During each pediatric dental appointment, we work to educate our patients on at-home oral hygiene with age-appropriate instruction and recommendations. We help them learn how to use their toothbrush and floss while showing them proper techniques and offering advice for developing good habits through routine.
Most infants have their first tooth erupt around six months of age, but all babies are on a different schedule and some get their first teeth earlier or later. Either way, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends that children first visit the dentist when their first tooth erupts or by the time they celebrate their first birthday, whichever occurs first.
A father himself, Dr. Victor Tran understands the concerns of parents and guardians when it comes to ensuring their children not only receive comprehensive, safe, and effective dental care but that they also have good experiences in the dental chair to develop positive associations with taking care of their teeth.
Dr. Tran works with parents to tailor the office environment and treatment approach to accommodate each child's individual needs and concerns while helping them build a strong foundation of good oral and general health.
With a focus on family dentistry, Origin Dental is proud to provide comprehensive, personalized care to patients of all ages. Whether you are an infant, child, teen, young adult, adult, or senior, we tailor our care approach and treatment recommendations to meet each patient's unique set of needs while ensuring a positive and age-appropriate experience.
To learn more about family dentistry and our approach to child dental care, we invite you to contact our dental office in San Diego. We can schedule a time for you to stop by and meet our team or put your family on our calendar for your next dental checkups and cleanings. We look forward to meeting your family, and welcoming you into ours!