Dental Health Protects Children For A Lifetime! Teach you 6 Tricks To Prevent Dental Caries In Children
"Doctor, why do I have cavities? What's the matter with cavities?"
"Tooth decay is called 'dental caries' in medicine. When tooth decay occurs, it becomes 'dental caries'. From the ancient text structure, we can see that people at that time believed that tooth decay was a small bug that got into the teeth."
Tooth Decay Is Caused By Bacteria, So How Does Tooth Decay Come About?
In fact, caries is caused by bacteria, and is the result of the combined action of bacteria and sugar. But the term "tooth decay" is widely used because it is too vivid.
Dental caries is a topic that many people cannot avoid.
The fourth national oral health epidemiological survey released in 2017 shows that nearly 40% of 12-year-old children in my country have caries in their permanent teeth; more than 70% of 5-year-old children have caries in their deciduous teeth. In the past ten years, the incidence of caries in children has shown an upward trend. .
The formation of caries is like a mouse drilling a hole, from shallow to deep, from small to large, and often the surface is not obvious, and the deep caries is already very large.
Caries Will Hollow Out The Teeth Step By Step
The severity of caries can be classified into superficial caries, medium caries and deep caries.
Shallow caries: caries limited to the enamel, with small, shallow holes, no symptoms, and no response to probing.
Medium caries: The caries have reached the dentin, there are obvious cavities, and they are sensitive to the external cold, hot, sour and sweet stimuli, especially the sweet ones.
Deep caries: The caries has reached the deep layer of the dentin, with deep caries, close to the pulp, and more sensitive to external stimuli.
Three Types Of Children Are Susceptible To Dental Caries
Generally speaking, there are three types of children who are most likely to be found by caries.
1. Bad eating habits
Likes to eat desserts, drinks and other foods with high sugar content, especially children who eat snacks more than 3 times a day.
2. Poor oral hygiene
Not brushing your teeth or brushing your teeth does not work well.
3. Poor anti-caries ability
Such as less saliva secretion, irregular arrangement of teeth, or underdevelopment of teeth and so on.
Don't Wait Until "Nervous" To Pay Attention
When the caries is serious, the nerves will also hurt, so we have to talk about "killing nerves".
What people often say is "killing nerves", which is called "root canal therapy" in medicine.
Teeth are not solid, the hollow space is filled with pulp, which contains nerves, blood vessels and other tissues. Once the caries progresses to the pulp, it will lead to pulpitis, so the doctor can only remove the infected pulp, sterilize the contaminated pulp cavity and root canal, and use harmless materials to seal it tightly. Filling, this process is called "root canal treatment".
Steps Of Root Canal Therapy:
Find the dental nerve inflamed → open the pulp cavity, take out the inflamed nerve → root canal cleaning and disinfection → root canal filling → seal the pulp cavity → wear a crown for protection
Teeth that have undergone root canal treatment usually need to be crowned (braces), because the pulp is gone, and the teeth will become brittle and easy to break if they lose their nutritional support. The chewing process is safer.
After root canal treatment, especially patients with apical periodontitis may also need to take X-rays for review, and the cycle is generally three months, six months, one year, two years or longer.
When Is Root Canal Treatment Required?
1. Pulpitis
For some people, the pulp inflammation will be unbearably severe, and some people have a mild pulpitis and feel no pain at all. Because pulpitis is divided into acute and chronic. Once a doctor has diagnosed pulpitis, root canal treatment is performed.
2, periapical periodontitis
The infection of the dental pulp will slowly necrosis over a long period of time. If it is not controlled in time, the inflammation will continue to develop, and it will invade the bone tissue around the root of the tooth. If root canal treatment is not performed at this time, the tooth will gradually disintegrate.
Both pulpitis and apical periodontitis can cause severe pain. At this time, the teeth are like cooking meat in a pressure cooker. In the basically closed space of the teeth, the liquid in the pulp increases rapidly, the pressure suddenly increases, and its energy has nowhere to vent, causing indescribable pain. This situation must go to the hospital as soon as possible for emergency open pulp treatment.
To Prevent Pulpitis, Do These Six Points
Since pulp inflammation is so terrible and the treatment is so complicated, why wait until the teeth are inflamed? Children should protect their teeth from caries and pulpitis.
① Conduct adequate chewing training. Children aged 3 to 6 should not only eat soft, rotten and fine foods, but can properly eat high-fiber and tough foods. Chewing more teeth is conducive to jaw and facial development.
②Rinse your mouth after eating and drinking. Rinse your mouth with warm water after each meal to reduce the residue of food residues. Rinse your mouth after drinking beverages and milk. You can rinse your mouth with water or plain water, and it is not recommended to use mouthwashes containing medicinal ingredients.
③ Control the number of snacks per day. It is best to eat snacks at one time, remember not to "snacks are refreshing for a while, and snacks are always refreshing". After eating snacks, you should also rinse your mouth with plain water, and learn to puff up your cheeks to rinse your mouth. Whatever you eat, end with plain water.
④ Avoid snacks after brushing your teeth before going to bed.
⑤ Use dental floss. Due to the characteristics of the shape and arrangement of deciduous teeth, it is very easy for children to get stuck in their teeth when they eat. The gap between the teeth is the main base of food residues and the most common place for children to develop dental caries. It must be removed with dental floss.
⑥ Children aged 3 to 5 will want to try to brush their teeth by themselves. In order to ensure proper cleaning, parents should help the children brush their teeth after brushing their own teeth. Because children have poor finger dexterity, they are less likely to brush their teeth completely.