The start of a wonderful relationship
Creating good habits that last a lifetime is much easier to do when your children are very young, and if there’s one good habit that they need to pick up as soon as possible, it’s going to the dentist.
The best way to ensure that your child will take care of their teeth long after they have moved away from home is to start bringing them in to see us at Forest Dental in Loughton as soon as you can.
We recommend bringing your baby to your own appointments so that they can become accustomed to the dental environment long before they first need to sit in the chair. Children learn best by watching and copying so if they see you having a great visit at the dentist, it won’t be long before they want to have a go in the chair too.
In Loughton, children’s dentistry is somewhat different from adult dentistry in that it is mainly focused on decay prevention. Decay is more prevalent in children for two reasons. Firstly because they are still learning to brush their teeth, and find it hard to spend two minutes doing anything let alone standing still brushing their teeth. Secondly because children tend to consume more sugary drinks and snacks than adults. Decay in children’s teeth is serious because, if it is left untreated it’s not just the baby teeth that are affected, the adult teeth behind them can also be affected and may not come through correctly or may even need to be extracted.
For this reason, we offer a couple of treatments to help prevent decay. Fluoride treatment helps to mineralise the dental enamel against decay. We put fluoride gel into tooth trays and fit these over the teeth. Your child wears this for several minutes before removing the trays and rinsing away the excess. If this is done regularly, it can help prevent decay.
We also offer fissure sealants for the back teeth, where decay tends to happen as it can be hard for kids to brush their back teeth. We paint the back teeth with a transparent plastic sealant that stops plaque from building up and the acids it gives off being able to reach the enamel.