The reason I decided to write this article is because I remember as a child, my parents didn’t have dental coverage so many times we would rely on the dentist that used to come into the schools and would actually drill your teeth and even give you a temporary filling if your teeth were really bad and then of course it was up to the parents to get you to your real dentist to fix anything else.
Since I dealt with a lot of problems in my mouth over the years, when I began having children I promised they would not endure what I did. I began reading a lot of articles, surfing the internet and reading baby books that I found to be very interesting about teeth and learned they actually begin to break through the gums at about 6 months of age. Usually, the first two teeth to erupt are the two bottom central incisors (the two bottom front teeth). Next, the top four front teeth emerge. After that, other teeth slowly begin to fill in, usually in pairs - one each side of the upper or lower jaw - until all 20 teeth (10 in the upper jaw and 10 in the lower jaw) have come in by the time the child is 2 ½ to 3 years old. The complete set of primary teeth is in the mouth from the age of 2 ½ to 3 years of age to 6 to 7 years of age. (Source from WebMD).
It is generally recommended that an infant be seen by a dentist by the age of 1 or within 6 months after his or her first tooth comes in. With having that knowledge under my belt, I couldn’t wait for my son’s first dental check up. What a proud moment when the doctor said, “no cavities”. On the right path I thought. After all, I made him brush 3 times a day, very minimal amounts of sugar were a part of his diet and I never put him to bed with a bottle and even had him off his pacifier by the age of 11 months. Taking the advise the dentist had given, even had him flossing at a very early age.
I am pretty confident this child will be “cavity less” (if that is even a word) but as luck would have it, we are not with our children 24/7 and at some point they do get into as much sugar and pop as they can devour.
The next check up…drill time. Yes, he has a cavity. Well, as a mom, you don’t want to hear “do you prefer gas or Novocain” especially when your child is 5 and he has no idea what he is in for. I am happy to say; he is 19 years old now and hasn’t had a cavity since due to teaching him the importance of brushing and flossing over the years.
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