Oceana Dental provides expert care for your entire family—kids included! Our warm and welcoming atmosphere helps set your kids at ease, and starts them on the path to a lifetime of dental and whole body health.
We provide checkups, cleaning, general dentistry, and natural dentistry/wellness dentistry services to give your kids beautiful smiles and healthy habits.
Is natural or wellness dentistry suitable for my children?
Yes! Preventative dentistry is so important, especially for young kids, and wellness dentistry emphasizes prevention, whole body health, and the avoidance of invasive procedures where possible.
During the formative years, we provide oral hygiene instructions to kids and parents to give them every chance to avoid cavities and gum disease. Diet counselling will help discover any nutritional deficiencies and encourage healthier eating practices, so that kids will grow properly with healthy bones and teeth.
Our practice of airway assessment and management can also benefit your child in all aspects of their life. If swollen tonsils, a deviated septum, a narrow jaw or other airway issues interfere with sleep, we can provide recommendations to help improve the situation. This is important because kids who are sleep deprived are more prone to conditions like ADHD, learning problems, and other long term negative health effects.
Pediatric dentistry essentials
When and how should I start caring for my baby’s teeth?
Before their teeth appear, it helps to clean your baby’s gums with a damp cloth or a soft rubber finger brush after every feeding. This helps fight bacterial growth even though you aren’t using toothpaste yet.
When your child’s first teeth start to appear, it’s time to transition to an infant toothbrush. After he or she has several teeth, you can start using toothpaste, but avoid fluoride toothpaste. Kids naturally want to swallow toothpaste, and consuming too much fluoride is particularly bad for them.
When should I start bringing my child to the dentist?
Ideally as soon as their first teeth start to show—at about six months—and no later than their first birthday.
This visit has two key purposes: the first is about educating you and your child about the dos and don’ts of dental care. For example, many parents don’t know that overnight bottles should contain only water, as milk or juice can lead to tooth decay (during the day, water should still be the drink of choice).
The second purpose is to get kids used to the clinic, to us, and the appointment process. It’s important that we take the time to look at how your child’s teeth are growing in, and look for any potential tooth, gum or jaw problems (especially if they suck their thumbs). If things are going well, we can give the teeth a polish. Mainly, we want to give them a positive experience and fun memories so future visits are a breeze.
How do I prepare my child for their first dental visit?
The most important thing is to stay positive, and to help them understand what will happen so their imaginations don’t run away with them. Try introducing the idea through a book or a video.
Kids learn primarily through play, and playing dentist with them can work wonders. Ask them to sit in a chair, and brush their teeth while talking about the importance of taking care of the teeth. Count and inspect your child’s teeth, again, while providing comments. Then have your child take a turn being the dentist for a stuffed animal, their other parent, or siblings.
Some children are naturally nervous about new situations, so allowing them to bring a stuffed animal may provide some comfort. After the visit, give them an extra big hug and tell them how proud you are of them for being so brave. If the child cried, don’t dwell on it, instead talking about what went right.
Why is it important to take care of baby teeth?
While baby teeth aren’t permanent, they do help your child chew, smile and speak properly. They also set the stage for the development of their adult teeth—loosing baby teeth to decay can mean that the remaining teeth crowd into the space, which may cause problems as the adult teeth emerge. Your child’s dental health also affects their overall health in many ways.
How often should my child visit the dentist?
Just like adults, children should ideally visit the dentist every six months. If there are problems with the teeth or gums, we may recommend more frequent visits.
What are preventive resin restorations?
For maximum benefit, preventive resin restorations should be used as part of children’s and adults’ total preventive dental care.
Preventive resin restorations are BPA-free fillings that are applied to the biting surfaces of teeth to prevent decay from spreading deeper into the more sensitive areas. Toothbrush bristles cannot effectively clean out bacteria from deep pits and narrow grooves in your teeth. The trapped bacteria can then spread and cause decay. Preventive resin restorations flow into and coat the pits and grooves, creating a shallow and smooth surface so that food and bacteria simply slide off the tooth surface.
Since these pits and grooves are in the outermost layer of the tooth (enamel), the preventive resin restorations can usually be placed without dental freezing (local anesthetic). Managing the decay early in its development not only maintains sound tooth structure, but also allows both children and adults to enjoy their appointment without the discomfort of the needle or its numb effect.
Waiting until the tooth becomes sensitive indicates that the decay has progressed to the deeper parts of the tooth and treating this decay usually requires anesthetic. So, why wait for sensitivity to develop and react to the problem? Prevent the decay from getting worse and treat cavities as soon as they are detected.
We will always recommend early preventive treatment instead of waiting for the problem to get worse and then reacting. Appropriate use of preventive resin restorations can save time, money and the discomfort for your children.
If you have any other questions about dental care for your kids, just ask!