Children Check-ups Throughout Their Ages – Part 3 – 3 to 6 years old

From ages 3-5 years the number of baby teeth remains constant at 20. The main areas to watch are between the back teeth, i.e. the last and second last teeth known as the deciduous molars. This is a common area of decay. Decay occurs just below where teeth touch together. In an adult this is about half way up tooth that is seen, so usually it’s above the gum. Adult teeth touch each other like two balls touch each other. Baby molars touch each other like two boxes so the decay often starts at or just below the gum.

This means the decay can hidden and been there for a while before the tooth collapse to form a visual hole. Most pain in children is from food impacting into the hole. In children, diet is especially important as this can set up lifelong habits that can affect not only dental health but general health.

A reliance on sugar can be addictive and lead to decay, gum problems and diabetes and heart problems to name a few!

The baby teeth are not disposable teeth, but are there to provide chewing and swallowing function and hold the space in preparation for the adult teeth. Therefore preserving the baby teeth is important.

If the decay is large sometimes a metal crown may be needed on baby tooth to hold a large amount of filling material.

If the tooth needs to be removed then in certain situations a space maintainer is placed to hold the space for the new tooth, which sometimes can be years.

Sometimes habits need to be correct that can causes changes to the bite such as thumb sucking or dummy sucking.

We want to make the visit to the dentist fun.

The government has a scheme, if you are eligible, to cover for children dentistry from 2-18 years as a means to prevent problems later in life. It’s called the child dental scheme.

The six year old molars that come through behind the baby teeth, are forever teeth and will be covered in the next week’s blog.