Developing children need dental care routine as much as adults. Parents often think that children’s primary teeth are not that important since they are meant to eventually fall off and get replaced with permanent teeth. But emergency 24 hour dentist proved otherwise. Children’s teeth play a big role in digesting and chewing food, appearance, speech, and guiding the permanent teeth under them where precisely to erupt for the correct positioning of all the permanent teeth.
Primary teeth are only 20 teeth in total due to the small jaw size of children. The complete set of teeth by the time an individual reaches adulthood is a total of 32 teeth. Since children aren’t born with teeth, they begin to erupt by the time babies are about 10 months and last up to 29 months of age. Each child is unique and some may have their teeth earlier or much later than others. Your child’s primary teeth consist of incisors, canines, and the molars. Each with their respective uses. The incisors are used to cut food, while the canines are used to tear food apart, and the molars to grind food. Children’s teeth is composed of different layers with an outer protective layer that acts as a shield against foods that can damage the inner and much softer layers where blood vessels and nerves are located. The primary molars are usually the last of all the primary teeth to fall out. The permanent replacements for these molars would come out around or after your child reaches 12 years.
Children who are exposed to sweet and sugary foods and have poor dental hygiene are at a high risk of experiencing a number of dental and oral health problems. The primary teeth of kids are not as tough as that of adults and with their age, dental treatment is quite hard to be carried out. This is due to the general anesthetic that is used on most dental treatments that don’t go without risks. Tooth decay and plaque formation on kids can cause pain and infection in the form of abscess inside the roots of their teeth. Severe cases of tooth decay may lead to tooth extraction. Primary molars are very important in guiding the permanent successors and if your child’s tooth needs to get extracted, then the guide tooth would be lost. This later on causes the space in the gum line for the successor tooth to diminish that leads to crowding or misalignment of the permanent tooth in adulthood.
Parents need to look out for signs of tooth decay or infection on their kid’s primary teeth and seek a dentist’s help immediately. The best way to avoid potential dental problems is to educate children of the importance of their primary teeth and make dental care routines that are fun and easy for them to follow. Their oral and dental health would determine their overall health in the future. Establish good oral habits at an early age as soon as their first tooth appears.