How Often Do We Need a Reminder or Review – Children

Children start to get their primary teeth usually from 6 months of age. Children should be seen early in life to get used to seeing the dentist. Also it’s an opportunity to talk to the parents about diet and cleaning habits.

For the first two years a tooth appears in the mouth, its surface is porous and still maturing. Treating the surface of the tooth with fluoride makes the enamel crystals stronger and more resistant to decay.

A high sugar intake can lead to a lunar landscape mouth – craters everywhere – especially with sugar laden juices in baby bottles.

Sometimes the teeth are delayed in erupting. This generally is not a problem unless the order of teeth eruption is not correct. Then further investigations are needed such as small periapical x-ray or an OPG. The teeth may be there but slow in breaking through or not there at all, or extra teeth are in the way blocking eruption or some other medical issues or lesions delaying eruption.

Other factors of the mouth are checked such as habits that can affect the eruption of teeth and their position in the mouth e.g. thumb and dummy sucking, biting nails and sucking toys.