Preventive Care

Does my Child really need to visit as per recommended preventive visits?

Children with healthy mouths and teeth typically need to visit the dentist every six months for routine check-ups and preventive care, such as cleanings, sealants, and fluoride treatments.

However, your child may require an alternate schedule that better accommodates your child’s needs as per his caries risk and home oral hygiene.

With this preventive dentistry approach, the intent is simple: let that small cavity/decay shall never be big; best we can try together not to have one only, ever.

What exactly constitutes cleaning of teeth?

Professional dental cleaning/scaling helps remove built-up plaque/biofilm that is not removable using conventional brushing and flossing over time. This, in turn, helps in delaying/preventing gum problems and dental decay.

To identify biofilm, we use colorful gels that help us identify all possible biofilm and help educate you and your child on how to prevent its buildup.

What are sealing the grooves or Pit & Fissure Sealants?

Teeth have natural grooves or grooves, called cavities and fissures. It’s all very rough in a sense, but when it comes to keeping your children’s teeth clean and free of cavities, cavities and fissures aren’t scratchy at all.

Pits and fissures contain bacteria and other substances that cause tooth decay in children and these cavities cannot always be cleaned properly with a normal toothbrush. Thankfully dentists have developed pit and fissure sealants that can fill and seal grooves in children’s teeth and prevent bacteria from entering. They make it easier to clean teeth and reduce the risk of tooth decay in a child.

Fisher sealants are recommended for filling adult or primary teeth in children at high risk of developing cavities. And children who brush and floss regularly may also be considered at high risk, for example, depending on the amount of fluoride they use and the size of their teeth (especially the groove area).

I've heard a lot about fluoride but does my child really needs it ?

Fluoride is the single most effective dental decay prevention strategy to combat that caries cycle in your child mouth.  It has a unique property to resist cavity formation, fight ongoing decay, and possibly reverse it.

There is a reason it is incorporated in our toothpaste, tea, water (some countries) in permissible amounts. Fluoride varnishes, sticky paint applied by micro brush, is one of our clinic’s most popular, most effective, and most done procedures.

We have a large number of families who visit us every 3-6 months only to get this done for their child over the years. That’s the commitment they fulfill in order to have a decay-free mouth. Keep in mind that fluoride varnish treatments cannot completely prevent cavities. This treatment best helps prevent decay when combined with brushing, flossing regularly, getting regular dental care, and eating a healthy diet.

Watch a video on Facebook to know more.

I've never heard of Dental Home ?

Children’s jaws and teeth grow and their smile and face changes over time and they need a familiar place where your child can visit for their oral health needs over the period of time. This is what we call a DENTAL HOME.

By establishing a dental home by age one, a preventive dentistry program can place a child on the path to optimal oral health.

Most children are seen every three to six months, but some may be seen more frequently if a mouth or tooth injury is being monitored or at a high risk of getting cavities.

We guide parents by providing them with actionable oral health advice during their regular dental visits so that kids can move from a need-based to a preventive-based approach.

Kindly guide me for Anticipatory guidance?

We counsel parents/caregivers for appropriate brushing & flossing habits, along with dietary and feeding guidance that will help give your child a lifetime of healthy habits.

We also guide for teething, preventing dental injuries, the importance of limiting foods and beverages that contain sugar, home oral hygiene, and preventive care.

We also emphasize appropriate tongue movements, breathing, and swallowing techniques which are vital in the future face for the child.

Habit Counseling: Children are born with a natural sucking reflex. In fact, babies begin to suck on their fingers while still in the womb. Sucking a thumb or pacifier is relatively harmless during the first few months of life and may actually be emotionally comforting to an infant. However, prolonged sucking that lasts into the preschool years or later may cause long-term oral complications, including open bite, tongue thrusting, crooked teeth, and improper jaw growth.

We take pride in emphasizing early guidance and psychological counseling to prevent developing concerns due to extended thumb sucking/mouth breathing or nail/lip biting habits. Mouth Guards/Sports Dentistry: According to the American Dental Association (ADA), more than 200,000 oral injuries are prevented each year by wearing a mouthguard.  Mouthguards can help protect your child from a dental emergency.

Mouthguards, also called mouth protectors or sports guards, are appliances made of soft plastic that helps cushion a blow to the face, minimizing the risk of broken teeth and injuries to your lips, tongue, face, or jaw, and also help redistribute forces from a blow to the head during a contact sport.

While a mouthguard won’t prevent a concussion, it can significantly reduce the severity of the injury. In simple terms, Customized mouthguards are like “helmets” for your child’s teeth during contact sports or recreational activities.  Simply, it is not an option for your growing child who wishes to explore the world in its own ways; it’s an essential tool to prevent any dental emergency from trauma/injury.