Pediatric Dentist – Florenceky Pediatric Dentist – Pediatric Dentist in Jacksonville FL

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 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.