A dentist, in the simplest of terms, is a tooth doctor. A pediatric dentist is a tooth doctor who specializes in treating children’s teeth. You have probably heard some harrowing tales stemming from visits to the dentist. Well, you would be forgiven for being apprehensive, but honestly, go with an open mind.

A pediatric dentist takes care of children’s teeth from infancy to the teenage years. They are trained to not only take care of children’s teeth, gums and mouth; they are also trained to handle children as they handle the treatment.

Baby teeth

· The first set of teeth show up in the first 6 months of life.

· Then they begin to lose them from the age of 6. It would seem 6 is the lucky (… or unlucky) number where children and teeth are concerned.

· The baby teeth, as they are commonly known, are then replaced by permanent teeth. Secondary (permanent) teeth come with their own set of issues and if they are not taken care of properly, oral decay and disease may be constant companions. If you have ever suffered a toothache, you know you do not want that. The pain is beyond horrible.

· Childhood dental caries is an infectious disease that is very common in children. Pediatric dentists are equipped to handle such issues competently and calmly. Calm is of utmost importance in a pediatric dentist’s office.

Training

Training for pediatric dentists includes:

• Four years of dental school
• Two years of residency training in pediatrics. This includes dentistry for infants, children, teens, and children with special needs.

Type of treatments provided by pediatric dentists

They handle all manner of healthcare and maintenance to do with children’s and teenagers’ teeth. These include the following:

· Habit counseling – This has to do with habits that affect the teeth, like the use of pacifiers and thumb sucking.

· Risk assessment – Oral health checks for infants to assess risk for caries in both the child and the mother

· Orthodontics – Teeth alignment and bite checks

· Preventive care – Cleaning and fluoride treatment, and nutritional advice

· Repair – Tooth defects and cavities

· Management – Conditions like mouth ulcers, mucoceles, and periodontal disease, frenula, and gum diseases

· Diagnosis – Oral conditions that arise from complications brought about by ailments and conditions like asthma, diabetes, hay fever, ADHD as well as congenital heart defects

· Dental care – Especially for dental injuries like knocked out, fractured and displaced teeth

A pediatric dentist offers expertise in children’s dental care and is endowed with skills to ensure that the dental experience for the child does not turn out to be a traumatizing experience that fills them with trepidation at the mention of the dental clinic

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Teeth grinding can be the cause of jaw pain, tooth loss, receding gum and TMJ problems. Without intervention future detrimental dental problems can arise from chronic teeth grinders. It is a good thing that there are options available both over-the-counter and through a dentist to slow down and treat teeth grinding issues.

The cause of teeth grinding is still somewhat of a mystery as it encompasses a broad range of both psychological and physical origin. Teeth grinding can start because of misaligned teeth, stress, anxiety, depression, medications or be due to someone being naturally predisposed to aggressiveness or hyperactivity. Due to the large number of causes, a dentist may ask a patient if they undergoing a lot of stress or anxiety before treating them. The dentist may recommend that the patient talk with a therapist or take up exercise such as yoga to limit the amount of stress and anxiety.

Typically mouth guards are considered the best treatment for grinding teeth in sleep and can be expensive depending on the type purchased. Dentists charge more, due to the specific molding of the teeth. Buying a cheaper, generic one-size-fits-all mouth guard, is easy to buy over the counter at a local drug store or pharmacy but will not cure TMJ issues. Naturally, many have claimed better performance from mouth guards created by a dentist because of the specially crafted mouth guard. The tighter and better the fit, the less teeth grinding and teeth clenching there should be. If a headache or other related symptoms are still present, it’s important to visit the dentist and talk about the complications.

If treatment is not used, many people will experience flattening of their teeth, teeth loss, headaches and other symptoms that will increase in severity over time. You have one set of teeth and one jaw for the rest for your life, so it’s quite important to treat teeth grinding symptoms early and it’s the most effective way to minimize further damage and to save your sleeping spouse or partner from losing anymore sleep.

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The natural dental care focuses on providing safe and natural treatments to patients by getting rid of toxic materials and metals traditionally used by conventional dentists. This field of dentistry also focuses on prevention rather than curing the problems. It focuses on the health of the whole person, not just his dental health. The healthier the body is, the more likely it is for the teeth to be healthy. Diet and exercise as they impact a person’s health are also given consideration.

A practitioner of natural dentistry will never use such potentially harmful treatments as mercury dental amalgams. This substance is a toxin and all dentists must handle it as hazardous waste. Since amalgams are about 50% mercury, do you really want that in your mouth? Mercury has been found to cause many complications in the body including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Fillings used in natural dentistry are coloured resins and porcelain as well as gold. Old mercury fillings are often replaced by these safer materials in order to improve a patient’s health.

Crowns used by orthodox dentists are made of materials that contain toxic metals like nickel. Metal free, porcelain and ceramic crowns are an excellent option for those concerned about what goes into their mouth.

Practitioners of natural dental care do not believe that tooth decay is caused by a lack of fluoride, but rather poor brushing techniques and an inadequate diet. In fact, excessive fluoride has been linked to loss of appetite in children, weakness of muscles and nerve damage.

So the patient is not given a fluoride treatment, but rather is shown the best brushing and flossing techniques as well is advised on the best diet which will ensure healthy teeth and gums. The dentist teaches his patients about the harmful effects of white flour, refined sugar and white rice. A diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables as well as protein from eggs, chicken and beef is also recommended.

Gum disease is addressed by the dentist by advising daily cleaning. Vitamin supplements and herbs may also be recommended. These include calcium to strengthen bone and vitamin C for healthy soft tissue. Tea tree oil in toothpaste and mouthwash is helpful in reducing the bacterial build up which can cause an infection. Diet, exercise and the state of mind of the patient are also taken into consideration. By controlling gum disease, the chances of suffering stroke, heart attack, diabetes and obesity are reduced.
Practitioners of natural dentistry hold the belief that root canal procedures can produce poor health by not thoroughly treating infections unable to be detected by x-rays. Alternative treatments such as red heat lamps, or sauna therapy are used. If these processes do not work, they will consider extracting the tooth.

Anaesthetic is available at the surgery of a natural dentistry practitioner. Acupuncture is also often made available for pain control, as well as nitrous oxide (laughing gas).

The dentist involved in natural dental care always spends time with the patient in order to gain a detailed analysis of the cause of the disease before prescribing treatment. They relate dental problems such as cavities, infections, root canals and misalignments of the teeth and jaw with far reaching effects throughout the body. Thus the practitioner of natural dentistry looks at the whole person, not just one part of him.

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Prosthodontics is a field of dentistry that specializes in replacing missing teeth with implants and prosthetics (false teeth). A prosthodontist is a dentist who has undergone a four-year ADA program to make him eligible to practice prosthodontics, in a sense that he has the skills to administer a full mouth reconstruction in cases where the patient has lost all of his/her teeth due to an accident or because they are crooked and the patients wants to replace them with dentures.

A prosthodontist also specializes in the diagnosis of teeth and mouth bite routines. A person with an awkward bite is prone to future mouth injuries in long-term impairments. The work of a prosthodontist is delicate and requires care and precision when creating false teeth. These false teeth or “dentures”, as both dentists and patients prefer to call them, help the patient in facilitating a normal bite. Dentures are made up of resinated materials (for the teeth) and special plastic (for the gums), that give the dentures a natural and life-like look. Dentures need not only be for an entire set of teeth. Some dentures are used to replace even just two missing front teeth.

Prosthetics are expected to last for about 30 years or more, depending on the eating habits and hygiene of the patient. Dentures are supposed to be brushed like normal teeth, to let them live longer and to reduce the bacteria and stain build-up.

Severe cases of dislocated teeth that have been caused by congenital defects and trauma from accidents require more specialized training when installing prosthetics intended to replace dislocated body parts other than the teeth. “Maxillofacial prosthetics” is a specialization requires an additional year of exclusive training in Maxillofacial Prosthetics. This sub-specialty of prosthodontics requires more precision, since other prosthetics are expected to be fabricated and installed on the gravely malformed face. This includes artificial eyes, nose and other facial prostheses. The prosthodontist will, more often than not, require aid from other medical and dental specialists to conceptualize the new prosthetics.

Maxillofacial prosthodontics is the most highly regarded specialization in the field of dentistry due to the complexity and longetivity of work required to restore severe cases of both dental and maxillofacial deformities.

Fixed prosthodontics is a cosmetic/esthetic way to replace missing or repair/conceal damaged teeth by the use of several dentistry methods, which include:

1. Crowns – or “caps” are used by dentists. This process involves getting a negative of the tooth to be covered by the crown. Afterwards, the tooth impressions are sent to a dental technician, in which the technician, in turn, fabricates the crown using different dental materials (depending on the agreement of the patient & dentist). Materials include: gold, silver, other metals and the cheaper porcelain.

2. Bridges – are false teeth installed on the gums, whereby the dentist attaches them to adjacent or neighboring teeth. “Abutment teeth” is the term used for the teeth where the dental bridges are attached to.

3. Inlay – is a filling made up of a solid substance (gold/porcelain) that is cemented in the drilled portion of the tooth. An inlay used for severe cases wherein a composite or amalgam filling is not enough to repair the damaged structure of the tooth.

4. Onlays – are used for teeth whose structure cannot be repaired by inlays or dental composites alone. Onlays are used when the cusp or perimeter wall of the tooth is missing. Gold is the preferred substance used on onlays, since gold never tarnishes and is durable enough to withstand any future cracks and sills that may compromise the structure of the filled tooth.

5. Veneer – is a thin layer of restorative (composite or porcelain) material used to conceal cracks, malocclusions and gaps in-between adjacent teeth. Veneers are bonded onto the surface of the teeth. People who suffer from healthy but slightly malocclused teeth are given the preferred option of getting veneers.

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If you’re like most people, you’ve found some flaw with your smile. Maybe the years of coffee drinking or smoking have given your teeth a yellow hue that is more noticeable than you would like. Maybe you have an embarrassing gap between your two front teeth or have a few teeth whose size is disproportionate to the others.

Flaws in your smile can affect your self-esteem and overall well-being.

It has been studied and shown that smiling makes you feel happier and more confident. Smiling at a friend or a passerby can lift their mood and make their day.

Maybe you’ve been kept from experiencing and sharing these positive benefits of smiling because the flaw in your smile is so significant.

Fortunately, there are numerous dental options to treat various dental imperfections.

Below are the common dental treatments and what they can best treat:

Crowns

Dental crowns are coverings that encase either a weakened or damaged tooth or a dental implant. They are made of porcelain or ceramic and look like the rest of the patient’s teeth.

Crowns are best for patients who have broken, cracked, severely discolored teeth, and teeth with large, unsightly fillings. Dental crowns are used to restore the strength and proper shape of teeth.

Besides their use on dental implants, crowns are also used to hold dental bridges in place.

Veneers

Dental veneers are thin layers of tooth-colored materials, customized to cover the front surface of teeth. The veneers or shells are securely bonded to the teeth.

Veneers are an effective dental treatment for misshapen or irregularly-shaped teeth. Veneers can treat teeth that are under or over-sized and either worn down or too long. These dental solutions also work well for chipped and broken teeth.

Implants

Do you have missing teeth? Whether they got knocked out from trauma or were too decayed and needed to be extracted, gaps between teeth not only look bad, but can lead to more serious dental issues such as crooked, misaligned teeth, weakened jaw bones and facial sagging.

Implants are titanium screws that are inserted into the jaw and topped with a dental crown.

Dental implants are the perfect option for patients who have one or two missing teeth.

The crowns on top of the implants are made to match the rest of the patient’s teeth.

As the implants are inserted into the patient’s jaw, they are durable and stable and behave and feel like the patient’s natural teeth.

Dentures

Dentures are often synonymous with the elderly. As we age, our bones and teeth weaken.

Dentures allow patients with multiple missing teeth to eat, speak and have a good-looking smile.

There complete, or full dentures and partial dentures. Full dentures are for patients who are missing all their teeth while partial dentures are for patients with a couple missing teeth.

In some cases, dental implants can be used as an alternative to partial dentures.

Dental Bleaching

Dental bleaching, also known as whitening can restore patients’ teeth to their natural, white beauty. There are multiple whitening products out there, each with their pros and cons.

Professional dental bleaching by a dentist is more effective in lifting out stubborn stains on teeth, provides more comfort to the patient, gives near immediate results and lasts longer than most at-home whitening kits.

Achieving the perfect smile you’ve always wanted has never been easier due to the various dental procedures available today. Crowns, veneers, implants, dentures and teeth whitening are services most dentists offer.

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