Florenceky Pediatric Dentist – Pediatric Dentist in Jacksonville FL

5 Tips to Have a Healthier Mouth This Year

Do you want to have a much healthier mouth this year? If you have not always had the healthiest teeth and gums in the past, it is not too late for you to make a few changes. Getting into a better oral hygiene routine is the best way for you to improve your oral health while making your teeth look even better.

Get a New Toothbrush

If you are still using a traditional manual toothbrush, it is a great time to upgrade to an electric toothbrush. While you may feel like your traditional toothbrush does a great job at removing unwanted food and stains from the teeth while you are brushing, certain electric toothbrushes are much more powerful and can easily get rid of the excess plaque from between the teeth in an effortless manner. Not only are electric toothbrushes best to use when you need to get rid of plaque, but they also make it possible for you to reach every tooth in your mouth, including the teeth that are in the back.

You may think that electric toothbrushes are too expensive, but there are some effective and affordable options on the market. Even if you need to spend a bit more than you would normally spend on a traditional toothbrush, it is worth it because you will have teeth that look and feel a lot cleaner than they felt beforehand.

Start Using a Water Flosser

You should always floss your teeth to get rid of the food particles and bacteria that get stuck between them. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not floss often enough. It is good to use floss in the morning, before bed, and even between each meal, but most people forget to do this. While using traditional floss is ideal, you may want to consider using a water flosser when you are at home because then you can get rid of plaque and food particles with ease.

The at-home water flosser is similar to the kind of device that is used in dental offices by dental professionals when they are performing thorough cleanings of the teeth. There are both corded and cordless devices, both of which are easy to travel with when you are going on vacation. If you are going to use a water flosser, make sure to use it before you begin brushing your teeth. It helps to get rid of all the food and gunk that is on and between your teeth before you even start brushing with your toothpaste and toothbrush. You should feel the difference that a water flosser can make when you use it regularly.

Cut Back on the Sugary Foods and Beverages

If you want to have a healthier mouth, you will need to make some sacrifices. It helps to cut back on the consumption of sugary foods and beverages, both of which can contribute to tooth decay. This does not mean that you cannot have a soda here and there or that you cannot have your favorite piece of chocolate. It just means that you should cut back a bit and make healthier choices when grabbing something to eat or drink.

Eat Foods That Are Good For Your Teeth

While sugary foods are not good for the teeth and can ultimately lead to decay, there are other foods that you should start eating more often simply because they are known for keeping the teeth strong while preventing plaque buildup. Some of the best foods to start consuming when you want to have a healthier mouth include apples, celery sticks, carrot sticks, strawberries, and cheese. You should focus on consuming foods that are loaded with vitamins because those vitamins are good for your teeth and good for you in general.

Start Seeing a Dentist Regularly

Having a healthy mouth means visiting the dentist more often than you normally would. In the past, you may have only visited the dental office for cleanings once every few years, but this is a bad thing because then different issues can go undetected for such a long time. By having the teethed cleaned a few times a year, you can keep the plaque and tartar at bay while having any possible issues detected earlier on before they start getting much worse. A dentist will let you know if he or she sees something in your mouth that may need treatment.

If you would like to have a healthier mouth this year, these are the types of changes that you should start making. Use an electric toothbrush, start flossing with a water flosser, avoid sugary foods and beverages, eat healthier foods, and see a dentist regularly for cleanings and checkups. By making these changes now, you can end up with healthier teeth and gums that look good while avoiding all kinds of issues, including tooth decay, gum disease, and chronic bad breath.

Why Choose A Jacksonville Pediatric Dentist? 9 Important Reasons.

A pediatric dentist is an important professional in your child’s life since he/she provides oral care strictly to infants and children through adolescence, including those with special health needs. To acquire this knowledge, a pediatric dentist has to attend a 2- to 3-year specialty dental educational program focusing on pediatric dental training after completing a 4-year dental school.

Here Are 9 Reasons Why You Should Choose a Pediatric Dentist

1. Child-Friendly Equipment

While there aren’t any inherent issues associated with the use of standard dental equipment on children, but the best pediatric dentists in Jacksonville will prefer using smaller equipment designed specifically with children in mind. Child-friendly dentistry equipment can help ease your child’s anxiety while receiving dental care by reducing the discomfort usually caused by disproportionate equipment.

2. Specialized Education and Training

Pediatric dentists are primary and specialty oral care providers for infants and children through adolescence. Pediatric dentists usually have 2 or 3 years of specialty training after dental school to prepare them to meet the unique needs of children. The training empowers pediatric dentists to address the unique complexities of developing teeth as well as treating any potential issues when they emerge.

3. Experience Working with Children

Pediatric dentists have extensive experience working with young patients. They are fully equipped and trained to communicate with children of different ages, handle their emotions, as well as ease any anxiety or fear. Pediatric dentists are also experienced in treating children that have specific healthcare needs.

4. Ensures Your Child’s Comfort

It is critical that your child feels comfortable in the dentist’s office. A pediatric dentist’s office provides the distraction during the dental visit to ensure that your child has a positive experience. The office is also decorated in a fun and child-friendly manner that’s not very overwhelming to ensure that your child has a fun experience and actually looks forward to future visits.

5. Teaching Proper Brushing and Flossing Techniques

Parents can teach their children proper brushing and flossing techniques at home, but visiting the pediatric dentist allows for additional, needs-specific instruction. Children along with their parents receive age-specific tips for choosing as well as using the right tools for oral care. Pediatric dentists also provide resources that show children areas of missed plaque to help them adjust their self-care accordingly.

6. Checking for Proper Tooth Development

The pediatric dentist checks to ensure that teeth are erupting and developing properly right from the very first child’s office visit. In case there are any developmental problems to be addressed, early correction can limit their impact on the appearance and integrity of the smile. Furthermore, checking for signs of developing cavities can help pediatric dentists identify nutritional issues likely to be affecting a child’s oral and overall health.

7. Early Referrals

Besides ensuring that teeth are emerging and developing properly, pediatric dentists can also inspect the child’s bite alignment. Problems caused by mouth breathing, thumb sucking, under-bites, over-bites, and congenital defects can be identified early on by a pediatric dentist.

8. Habit Counseling

Habits such as thumb sucking and teeth grinding are particularly common in youngsters. It is usually very hard to get a child to break such habits. A pediatric dentist can help address the problem. He/she will have a sit-down with the child to teach him/her about how such habits are harmful to teeth. The dentist will then aid your child to stop the habit.

9. Adopting Lasting Oral Hygiene Habits

Adopting positive habits takes time and effort and helping your child/children do it is a critical aspect of being a parent. You can work with your pediatric dentist to help teach your child how to take proper care of their teeth from a very tender age. Doing this will improve your child’s chances of keeping the habits throughout his/her life and maintain healthy teeth, gums, and tongue in the process.

Final Thoughts

A pediatric dentist provides truly invaluable services to children as well as their parents as clearly shown here. Pediatric dental treatments can be as simple as cleanings or as complex as extractions and root canals, but it is impossible to know the full extent of your child’s dental problems if you don’t take them for regular appointments. Do not let your child’s teeth to go uncared for by taking them to the pediatric dentist regularly.

Learn Some Handy Snacks You Can Use For Healthy Teeth When On The Go

If you’re a busy parent who is always on the go, then it might be quite tempting to fill your children’s pockets and book bags with pre-packaged snacks in order to make sure they won’t go hungry while you save some time.

On the other hand, many packaged snacks have a lot of carbs and sugar in them, which are things that can lead to the cavities you don’t want them to get. Not only would it waste your efforts in getting them to brush, rinse, and floss their teeth, but could undermine the visits your children make to their pediatric dentist. Which will just cost you more money in the long run.

Having said that, there are quite a few handy and delicious snacks that you can give kids on the go that will satiate their hunger while also keeping their teeth clean along the way.

Apples are a great place to start.

You can get them cheap by the bag in the grocery store or even buy them individually. They don’t even have to take up room in your fridge and they’re easy to rinse off under the faucet.

You can send them out whole for bigger mouths or slice them easily with an apple-slicing tool and a cutting board to store in a plastic container or baggie.

Apples are high in fiber, which helps out anyone, but they also clean naturally as they are being eaten. They scrub the teeth, tongue, and gums when consumed, thanks to their fibrous texture.

The skin is great here. It can help get surface stains off the teeth and fight off plaque buildup.

Apples can also help combat bad breath by removing traces of bad plaque or residue from the back of your tongue. Apple slices make a great dessert substitution.

Cheese is another great snack, which is why you might see a lot of apple and cheese packaged snacks out there.

Cheese has a lot of calcium, which helps promote stronger teeth. However, the advantages of cheese certainly don’t stop there. It also has a protein that’s known as casein, which is something that helps make tooth enamel stronger and even helps prevent cavities.

String cheese, so long as it doesn’t have a lot of extra sugar added, if any, can be a wonderful snack for someone bouncing out the door.

Nuts are a great snack for those on the go since they might stay fresh a bit longer than apples or cheese.

Cheese has to usually stay refrigerated or eaten soon, as do apple slices, although a full apple can usually wait a while. Nuts can stay at the back of the line on a longer day, but even when your kids get around to them, they’ll still be rich in protein that helps your kids build up stronger teeth.

Also, the action and motions of chewing nuts will promote saliva production which naturally protects and then cleans your mouth by clearing out the mouth of debris and acid buildup which leads to cavities. They make for a wonderful alternative to potato chips and any other salty snacks which your kids might crave.

If you’re really in a crunch, then crunch time is the way to go.

Pears, carrots, raw broccoli, and celery are all quite healthy and nutritious on their own. However, they also work as natural toothbrushes, as they scrub off any build-up before stimulating saliva that can wash away anything that’s left.

In terms of beverages, water is the best way to keep a mouth clean, particularly if it’s fluoridated water that helps make your kid’s teeth more resistant to things like acidic foods.

Go for water bottles over sugary soda or juice boxes, and encourage your kids to swish some water in their mouth after they finish snacking. That will help remove anything caught in between their teeth, helping prevent acid buildup and loss of enamel.

These can happen or even get worse if they have food or drinks that are high in citric acid which erodes tooth enamel. The process of demineralization means that the acid can get to the soft layer of dentin underneath the enamel.

As a final step, you might just want to keep sugar-free gum handy.

It won’t be the kind of snack that satiates anyone’s hunger, but if they really just want something in their mouth, it can satisfy that urge at least.

Any gum that has the ADA seal, especially sugarless gum, which gets chewed for 20 minutes after meals or snacks might help prevent tooth decay. It gets the saliva flowing, which can wash away food debris and fight acids that are produced by the cavity-causing bacteria that eat away your teeth.

As with all things involving oral health care, talk to your child’s dentist and dental care professionals for specific advice and ideas based on what they know and what they see going on in your kids’ mouths.

The Importance of Baby Teeth

Even though baby teeth or primary teeth will ultimately fall out, their importance can’t be overstated. Good primary dentition helps a child establish good biting and chewing patterns, hold healthy space in jaws for the next set of teeth and develop speech.

Primary teeth are just as prone to cavities as adult or permanent teeth. When a primary tooth is lost to decay or falls out prematurely, the other teeth can tilt into the space and cause a delay in eruption. Teaching kids to take care of their teeth from an early age will ideally pave the way for a healthy oral cavity in the future.

That being said, here is a closer look at the importance of baby teeth:

Tooth Position and Alignment

Baby teeth save space for the permanent teeth and guide them into the right position. If a primary tooth is lost because of tooth decay, the adjacent tooth will tip or drift into that space. As a result, the permanent tooth gets less room to grow and tends to be blocked from erupting in that area.

Proper Health & Nutrition

Obviously, teeth are required for chewing. Pain from cavities leads to nutritional issues if the kid isn’t able to properly chew food.

If cavities are left unattended, there’s a huge risk of infection and this can spread to other regions of the body, including the brain. This can result in an emergency situation and the child may have to be hospitalized. Unfortunately, there have been cases where children passed away as a result of a dental abscess.

Healthy Permanent Teeth

Permanent or adult teeth develop near the roots of the primary teeth. Baby teeth are way smaller and so, cavities tend to spread quickly through the thin enamel. If left untreated, the primary teeth can develop an abscess or an infection which can interfere with teeth development and cause damage to the adult teeth underneath.

Facial and Speech Development

The cheeks, lips, and tongue deflect the teeth off during sound formation. The correct positioning of primary teeth helps in the formation of ideal pronunciation during speech. The structure of the tooth ideally gives support to the development of facial muscles and helps shapes the child’s face.

Self Esteem and Concentration

If your kid is experiencing dental pain, it can have a huge impact on their ability to focus and learn in school. Decayed teeth can also interfere with their social interactions and affect their self-esteem and confidence. This can lead to the kid missing school and you missing work if you have to take them to the dentist for an emergency appointment.

Tips For Baby Teeth Care

1. Getting Started

Since primary teeth usually arrive in six months, it is usually a good idea to introduce the aspect of dental hygiene at this stage. Parents usually find it hard to introduce brushing and establish proper oral hygiene at this point.

However, we all know that infants and toddlers put everything in their mouths and so, why not a toothbrush. Introducing this aspect at an early stage will allow the baby to be used to the idea of brushing.

2. Dentist Appointments

The cornerstone of good oral health is visiting the dentist at an early age. The best time to bring the kid to a pediatric dentist is before they hit the 2 year mark, particularly when the first tooth comes out. This gives you a chance to ask hygiene and dietary questions and get professional advice on dental health.

It allows your practitioner to establish a baseline record of the oral health of your child, which further safeguards the establishment of ideal dental health and prevents premature loss of crucial baby teeth.

3. Establishing a Brushing Regime

To keep your child’s mouth healthy and establish a dental health routine, brushing regularly is recommended. For 0-2 years old, it is best to brush with just water. From 2 to 7 years, the kid should brush twice a day with a little amount of fluoride toothpaste. You will still need to provide assistance with brushing, while still encouraging them to manage their own routine.

For a child under 7 years, a gentle scrub technique is recommended. However, your dentist should be able to advise you on the best technique for your child.

The Key Things To Know Before Getting Dental Braces

Getting braces is a fairly long commitment. Therefore, you want to be sure that you are aware of everything that goes into the treatment. Below, we will go over some of the key things that you should be aware of prior to getting braces.

Key Things To Know:

1. It’s A Long Process.

Getting braces is something that you need to be prepared for because it is a fairly long process even for simple cases.

Therefore, you need to be willing and able to commit to a minimum of 1 year when you are getting braces. However, some treatments might last upwards of 2 years or more.

2. Be Prepared To Have Issues Speaking Initially.

One of the key things that you will want to be aware of going into the process would be the fact that you might have issues speaking initially.

When you get your braces put on, you might develop a lisp.

This is normal but will subside as you get used to speaking with larger gaps between your lips and teeth.

3. Keep Your Lips Moistened.

When you are just getting started with your treatment, your lips are likely to be very sore. Not only is the process of putting the dental braces on quite long, but the brackets might cause you some discomfort as you get used to them.

Therefore, you should be looking to apply lip balm to your lips regularly and you also want to get yourself dental wax.

That way, you can place the wax on areas that might be causing your lips irritation.

4. Get The Proper Dental Tools.

Another thing that you are going to want to do prior to getting your braces installed would be to get dental tools that you are going to need to use in order to floss your teeth properly. You won’t be able to use traditional floss like you normally would.

Therefore, to make your life easier, you could get floss picks designed to be used for those that have braces getting in the way.

This is going to make it easier to keep up with your dental hygiene.

5. Your Teeth Will Hurt.

Unfortunately, braces are a treatment that is going to cause some pain at various points throughout the treatment. Therefore, you should be prepared to experience pain in your mouth especially after visits where you get the braces tightened.

Because of this, you need to be aware of the pain that you might experience to push through it.

While the pain that you experience will be subjective, everyone will experience discomfort at times throughout the course of treatment.

6. Food Can Get Stuck.

You need to pay careful attention to your dental hygiene when you are looking to care for your teeth with braces. You want to avoid getting food stuck and having food caught in between your teeth for long periods of time.

For this reason, you might want to carry a toothbrush along with you to brush your teeth after you eat. This will allow you to maintain optimal oral hygiene.

7. Expect Your Teeth To Change A Lot.

With braces, you should expect a significant change in your teeth and the positioning of them even in the first month of treatment. Braces begin to work very fast which should give you the confidence that you need to continue on with the treatment to its completion.

Overall, there is a lot that you are going to want to be aware of when going into your braces treatment. While they are expensive, the results will pay off in a big way.