Dental Care for Infants and Children
Polar Dental understands the importance of dental care for infants and children. That is why we offer specialty services just for infants and children to help them, and you maintain a healthy smile.
It is important to care for your child oral health even before the development of teeth. After each feeding, gently wipe the infant’s gums with a damp cloth of gauze. This will help to remove plaque.
Your baby’s first visit to Polar Dental will allow your dentist to monitor and evaluate the development of the facial bone and teeth and to identify hidden signs of possible decay.
We will also discuss with you tips on how you can best care for your child’s developing smile. The first tooth should emerge somewhere between six to twelve months. When this happens, you may gently begin brushing the tooth with an appropriate sized soft bristled brush and a pea-sized amount of children’s toothpaste. Encourage your children to brush their teeth independently once there have acquired the coordination to do so.
Check out our blog post for advice on dental health in your kids
Helping Your Infant or Child Care for Their Teeth
- Avoid too much sugar in the diet
- Putting your baby to bed with a bottle containing milk or other sweet liquids. (This will cause the sugar content to pool within the baby’s mouth resulting in tooth decay.) If a bottle at bedtime is a must, fill it with water (preferably distilled).
- Thumb sucking and pacifiers: These can cause abnormalities in the tooth and palate structure which will later require corrective treatment. Most children will outgrow thumb sucking by the time permanent teeth have grown in. If not, they should be discouraged to protect the alignment of their developing teeth and facial bone structure.
Good Dental Habits for Children
Encouraging proper and consistent dental habits for children while their young is directly reflected in how they continue to care for their oral health as they grow older. By the age of two, most children can be shown the basic brushing techniques. However, young children should always be supervised while brushing and use only a small dab of toothpaste. Discourage the swallowing of toothpaste.
Some children are likely to resist brushing at first and it can become quite the battle. Below we have listed some techniques that may help you:
- Make brushing fun. Show you child videos or tv shows of their favorite characters brushing such as Barney or Elmo.
- Brush together. Brushing isn’t just for kids, if your child sees you brushing he/she will try to copy.
- Get your child involved. Allow them to come with you to pick out their toothpaste or toothbrush.
- Make up a song and incorporate it into teaching more advanced brushing and flossing techniques as new teeth develop.
By promoting good health, you can also help ensure your child’s oral health. Provide fruits and vegetable snacks as opposed to sweets high in starches and sugar. Change your child’s toothbrush at least 3 to 4 times a year. Ask your Toronto Dentist about available protective plastic coatings that can be applied to permanent molars to dramatically reduce the occurrence of cavities.
Infants and Children
We offer services for infants and children to help them, and you maintain a healthy smile.
Seniors
Dental care is important for patients of all ages. Maintaining a healthy and radiant smile is possible throughout your entire life.
Dental Implants
Dental implants can not only repair your smile and bite but also help protect the remaining teeth you have to keep your smile radiant.
Invisalign
Invisalign improves the appearance and functionality of your teeth without the use of traditional braces.
Lumineers
Lumineers are custom designed utlra-thin porcelain shells placed on top of the teeth to aesthetically improve a patient’s smile.
Orthodontics
Orthodontic braces are used to treat dental issues such as malocclusion’s, disproportionate jaw relationships, crooked teeth, unwanted spacing, crowding, protruding teeth etc.
Root Canal
Root canals are performed in order to remove diseased or infected pulp tissue from within a patient’s tooth.
Veneers
Veneers are a cosmetic procedure that aesthetically improves a patient’s smile by placing a tooth-colored porcelain or ceramic shell over the natural tooth’s surface to correct uneven tooth alignment, chips, cracks, discoloration, or unwanted spacing.
Dental Crowns
A crown is in essence a ‘cap’ designed specially for the individual tooth, encasing it in protective material to prevent further damage.
Scaling and Cleaning
Dental scaling, cleaning and root planing, also known as prophylaxisis is the safe removal of plaque and calculus from the teeth and below the gums.
Inlays and Onlays
Inlays and onlays are often used as an alternative to full coverage dental crowns.
Sedation
Sedation dentistry uses nitrous oxide a sedative gas, more commonly known as ‘laughing gas’ that is inhaled through a small mask over your nose.
Sleep Apnea
WE offers solutions to help you with sleep apnea. Our specialist will custom fit you with an Orthoapnea device.
TMJ
TMJ is in fact a series of several disorders that directly affect the jaw joints and muscles ability to chew properly.
Periowave
Periowave is a treatment that can significantly improve results when combined with scaling and root planing.
Dental Bonding
At Polar Dental, patients who have cracked, misshapen, or chipped teeth can undergo dental bonding as a corrective form of cosmetic dentistry.
Teeth Grills
Grills, also known as “grillz” or “fronts,” are decorative teeth covers often made of gold, silver or jewel-encrusted precious metals that snap over one or more teeth.