We all know how kids can be smart these days with so much information available to them in the palm of their hands.
Recently, we had an interesting case whereby parents brought their little one to our clinic for a general check up. Little did they know that the kid was in pain caused by cavities in his teeth. The kid was unable to express the pain to his parents or to us. What we decided to do was to give him a biscuit to observe his eating behavior. We witnessed that the kid was chewing on the biscuit using only one side of his mouth. We immediately realized that the little one had adapted his eating habits all this time so that he wouldn’t aggravate the pain caused in the other half of his mouth. Upon further examination, we had found a few cavities in his teeth, where the infection had spread till his pulp.
Sometimes children cry when they are in pain and if it goes unnoticed, they adapt their behavior to minimize the pain which we observed in this case. When the infection in the milk teeth is left untreated, they can cause damage to the erupting permanent teeth. Fortunately for this toddler, he had a couple of minimal procedures carried out by our in-house Pedodontist (child specialist) before the condition became worse.
In light of this case, we would like to share a few tips for parents:
1. We encourage parents to inculcate a habit of checking their child’s teeth on a regular basis.
2. A lot of these problems can be avoided by brushing on a regular basis. Parents can make brushing an enjoyable experience for their child by making them use fancy toothbrushes or by making it more fun by brushing with them.
3. Parents are to encourage their child to drink lots of water and to rinse their mouth after each meal.
4. Say no to snacks such as sticky chocolates, biscuits and chips on a daily basis.
5. Do not frighten your kid by speaking of injections. Let your kid know dentists are their buddies and they are there to help them.
6. It is recommended to bring your child for a dental check up once every 3 months.
Milk teeth are the indices of the permanent teeth. Take good care of them.