Pediatric Preventive Dentistry in Rockford & Grand Rapids
With preventive dentistry, your child can avoid dental emergencies and oral health conditions. Contact us to schedule your child's next dental exam.
At SixOneSix Dentistry for Children, our primary focus is to educate our patients and their families on the importance of preventive dental care. Dentistry used to be a lot more black and white; when a cavity was diagnosed, it was filled, and so on, without much regard as to why cavities kept appearing.
Nowadays, with the advancements in dental research, materials, and techniques, preventive dentistry is allowing dentists and patients to work together to prevent cavities in the first place.
A Focus on Prevention
Drs. Valleau, VanDeven, and Dr. Feuerstein use prevention-based techniques and focus on diagnosing problems early, before they cause a major, costly problem. This is why our office offers infant oral exams and encourages parents to schedule their child's first dental visit early, before it is too late. Many dental problems that appear later in life start early and can be prevented with routine dental care and good home habits starting at a young age.
By scheduling your child for a routine dental visit, you are accomplishing more than you realize! These visits help your child develop the understanding that the dentist isn’t a scary place and will also build the foundation for a lifetime of healthy oral health habits. These regular dental check-ups also allow our doctors to check for any problems that may be present. Early detection of problems minimizes treatment and means fewer visits for your child and less money spent for you.
SixOneSix Dentistry for Children offers a wide range of preventive services in order to achieve your child’s optimal oral health.
Children’s Teeth Cleanings and Hygiene Instruction
Our doctors and hygienists work carefully and gently with your child using child-friendly terms and activities to educate them about the importance of keeping their teeth healthy. It is not uncommon for children to have a difficult time adequately brushing their teeth; even for parents, this can be a daunting task. Regular cleanings are important for removing the plaque and tartar that naturally builds up on and around the teeth over time. Clean teeth allow for better diagnosis and early cavity detection.
Comprehensive Dental Examinations
At your child’s visit, Dr. Valleau, Dr. VanDeven, or Dr. Feuerstein will examine your child. The doctors pay careful attention to each child’s growth and development pattern and will alert you of anything concerning. X-rays are typically part of a comprehensive examination and are extremely valuable in seeing below the surface of your child’s teeth and gums to catch problems early. The sooner problems are detected, the more conservative the treatment approach.
Our office follows the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry Guideline on Prescribing Dental Radiographs for Infants, Children, Adolescents, and Persons with Special Health Care Needs. We are dedicated to providing safe, high quality pediatric imaging (Image Gently).
Fluoride Treatment and Dental Sealants for Kids
Our office provides and encourages fluoride treatments for all children. Generally a fluoride treatment using a 5% sodium fluoride varnish will be recommended on a 6- month basis because of the extraordinary benefits it provides in reducing the risk of getting cavities. Some children, due to an already high cavity risk will benefit from more frequent fluoride applications until that risk decreases. After the application, the children can eat and drink immediately.
Sealants are a clear protective coating placed on the chewing surface of permanent molars. The procedure is quick and non-invasive and helps prevent food and plaque from being trapped in deep, hard to reach grooves of molars. Sealants have been studied for decades and have been proven to greatly decrease the risk of developing decay in the treated teeth.
Our doctors and staff encourage kids to be active and think a little bit of healthy competition is a good thing! However, we want to make sure our kids are safe during play. Encouraging kids involved in contact sports to wear a mouthguard is an important aspect of dental trauma prevention. Our office is more than happy to make custom mouthguards for those adolescents who have all of their permanent teeth. For kids in their primary dentition or early mixed dentition, the boil and bite type of mouthguards are typically recommended. At a young age, so much is still changing and developing that these tend to be the most cost effective, yet still very beneficial protective devices.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
We welcome parents and legal guardians to accompany their child during their appointment. We thoroughly explain each of our procedures to your child in terms they can relate to before we perform them. We want to give your chid our full attention and have his/hers as well, so we ask that parents and legal guardians please be silent observers during the examination. Be assured that we will treat your child as we do our own. We expect some children to cry, as this is a normal response to a new situation, but kind and gentle treatment almost always overcomes this fear.
Although primary teeth eventually make way for permanent adult teeth, they play an essential role in your child’s health. As soon as your dentist finds a cavity in your child’s mouth, we will likely recommend filling it to avoid future problems.
Leaving a dental issue for too long can be dangerous for your child’s overall wellness, including cavities. Cavities can be painful and uncomfortable, and they can also spread and affect other areas of the tooth or surrounding teeth. Certain dental issues can also affect your child’s self-esteem.
What to Expect During Your Child’s Dental Filling
A dental filling is a fast and easy treatment for cavities and ultimately protects your child’s growing smile and prevents further decay. First, we will ensure your child is comfortable and relaxed before working on their mouth. Next, we will gently and thoroughly remove the decayed area of the tooth and fill the hole with quick-drying material. We then clean and polish the tooth, so it looks as good as new.
Avoiding treatment for your child’s cavity can result in more costly treatment in the future. In the event your child’s tooth must be removed––which is always a last resort to protect their oral health––we will need to place a space maintainer to promote the proper growth of their adult teeth.
Though baby teeth eventually fall out, their health is vital to the growth and development of your child’s permanent teeth. In addition to fillings, we offer fluoride and sealants for cavity protection.
Cavity Fillings in Grand Rapids and Rockford, MI
Does your child have a cavity? Please give us a call today to schedule an appointment with our friendly and gentle pediatric dentists! At SixOneSix Dentistry for Children, we offer preventive dental care––such as quick and comfortable treatment for tooth decay––so your child can enjoy a healthier, happier smile.
You might be surprised to learn about the amount of sugar that is in everyday food and beverages that we consume. Since bacteria feed on sugar as fuel, eating (or drinking) a diet high in sugar can promote bacteria growth. Acid from food, beverages, and caused by bacteria in our mouths can soften the protective enamel on your teeth and cause decay (cavities). Here is a handy (and shocking) chart showing the sugar content in juice and soda.
Insert photo
If you want to learn more about how sugar affects your oral health, contact our dental office today. Our dentists will be happy to discuss the repercussions of a high sugar diet as well as treatments that can protect your child against cavities.
Many people hope for a simple rule of thumb for how often their child may need a dental x-ray. But in reality, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) holds that your child's dentist should determine when to take a dental x-ray. Their recommendations state that the need for radiography depends on the "type of patient encounter and the patient's age,...medical and dental histories, and risk factors for dental caries."
In other words, your pediatric dentist should only take x-rays of your children's teeth when the case calls for it.
When We Take Routine Dental X-rays
When your child first visits our dental office in Grand Rapids or Rockford, MI, we will take x-rays to establish a baseline oral health condition for your child. These images will also reveal if your child has excessive decay or cavities that we need to fill.
The second situation where we may update your child's x-rays is during their preventive dental visits twice or more each year. These visits allow the team at SixOneSix Dentistry for Children to monitor your child's teeth over time, identifying any potentially emerging problems as they develop. When through a visual examination, if one of our pediatric dentists in Rockford and Grand Rapids, MI spots a potential problem, we can use the x-ray to confirm that intervention is needed.
Dental radiography is a vital part of our preventive dental services, and we make safety our primary concern and only order x-rays when necessary.
Book Your Child's Next Dental Exam in Grand Rapids or Rockford
If you have additional questions about dental x-rays for children or are ready to schedule a pediatric dental appointment, we invite you to call your nearest dental office in Grand Rapids or Rockford, MI today!
In general, the primary (or baby teeth) are the space holders for the eruption of the permanent teeth. However, it does happen that sometimes a permanent tooth will not exactly follow the path of the baby tooth it is supposed to replace and may come in either in front or behind a baby tooth. This condition is relatively common and is not as much concerning (ie urgent) when it happens on the bottom teeth as when it happens on the top. Please call our office to set up an evaluation if a permanent tooth is erupting in front or behind a baby tooth on your child's top row of teeth.
Contact Our Pediatric Dentists to Schedule an Exam
We are welcoming new patients at all of our locations! Feel free to send us a message or give us a call with any questions/more information.
Need Assistance?