In our first Baby Blitz video we’ll talk about how pediatric dentistry changed in March 2020 given everything going on in the world, and what that means for your family.
View the video transcription here:
Hello Facebook fans. Welcome to another installment of Facebook Live. My name is Dr. Joy Warr, and I am a pediatric dentist here in High Point, North Carolina. And I want to thank you for joining me as we help you care for your children’s teeth. So, it’s so good to see you again. I missed you earlier. We had technical difficulties last time.
So today we’re going to talk about how come you fail baby teeth. I get that question all the time. Aren’t they going to fall out? Well, they will fall out. But there’s some especially important things that we must consider. Before we talk about just letting baby teeth with cavities fall out. Hopefully, that’s what we’re going to talk about today. But while we’re waiting, remember can you hear me, give me a thumbs up if you can, if you can see me, I want to thank you guys for being my patients. I want to thank you guys for tuning in.
I want to invite all our parent patients, and parents, if you are a patient or parent of ours, we want to appreciate you so we’re having a patient appreciation on March 17th, Tuesday at Good Year. We’re going to have a ball, we’re going to have T-shirts, we’re going to have pizza, we’re going to jump. Make your kids real tired. So, do your homework, go to your sports practices, and then come jump with us from six to eight, get some dinner, and then go home and put the kids to bed. Doesn’t that sound great? Well, it’s just because we really appreciate you and we thank you for being our parents or being our patients. We don’t take it lightly that you choose to come and to be our patients. So, thanks for that. We want to invite you up that’s March 17, which is Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day that the great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
We’re going to talk about why we care about babies’ teeth. Don’t they fall out anyway? Well, yes, you’re right. Baby teeth do fall out. But there’s three critical things that determine whether we’re going to fill a tooth or not. The very first one is the age of the child. So, remember that not all baby teeth come out at the same time. So, the rule of thumb is eight before eight, and then 12 before 12 that means that a baby tooth comes out before that child is eight years old, and then another 12, baby teeth come out before that child is 12 years old.
So, if you have a four-year-old, and you’re talking about a tooth that’s not coming out between 10 and 12, until the ages of 10 and 12, rather, then you probably should have that to get filled. And let me tell you why. The thing about decay is that it keeps going. Remember cavities and baby teeth or adult teeth or any other teeth. cavities keep going. They keep, they keep going. They just don’t stop because they’re decay. It’s not like when you get a cut on your skin, and you can leave it alone and it gets better.
Or it’s not like if you brush harder, the cavity will go away. cavities are not like that. So, if you have a four-year-old and has a cavity, it’s best to go ahead and get it filled, especially if it’s on a two. That’s not going to come out until the child is between 10 and 12. So first thing, look at the age of the child. The other thing you should know about the age of a child is that there’s a dental age and a physical age. That simply means that not all four-year old’s or five-year-old’s or eight-year-old lose teeth at the exact same time, every child is different.
So, I have some 10-year-old’s who have all their adult teeth. And then I have some 13 or 14-year old’s that still have some baby teeth left.
So, it all depends on the genetics of your child. That has a lot to do with whether you should have that baby tooth filled. That’s the first thing the age of the child, the physical age, and the dental age of the child. The second thing that you should know about when we fill baby teeth is the extent of the decay. Remember that every tooth has three layers. We must structure the outside which is the enamel part.
The middle part is the dentin part. Then the variant side is the nerve or the Pope of that tooth. Now, if the decay of any tooth is into the nerve, there is some treatment that probably should be done. Because that’s inside the nerve, it’s probably going to be painful and it’s probably going to abscess. So, if the extent of your child decays into the nerve of the tooth, you should probably have it repaired. If it can be repaired or extracted, you should have something done that’s not the type of tooth that you want to just let it come out.
The other thing is, it may be a tooth on say like an 11 or 12-year-old, a baby tooth and it’s only into the enamel. Now that may be a situation where you do not have to have that to fill, where if you’re looking at that tooth and it’s not going to cause a problem, the decay won’t get deeper or it won’t begin to bother your child before that tooth comes out on its own, you may be okay to let that fall out on its own.
But remember, it all depends on the age of the child. And the extent of the decay is the decay is into the enamel, or the middle tooth structure, or is it into the nerve that has a lot to do with it. And then finally, the only thing you should consider is how soon the underlying adult tooth will erupt. In other words, if it’s a two that probably doesn’t have that much root structure on it, and it’s going to erupt, say in another year, to a year and a half.
That may be a tooth that can take it however, it fits a fill. It’s a tooth that doesn’t come in until the child is about nine, you should probably consider filling that tooth. It’s always easier to fill a small cavity than it is to wait until the cavity gets big. And it infiltrates the nerves and or the middle to structure. It’s always harder to fill or to do something to a bigger cavity. So, don’t wait. If that tooth is going to be there for a little while. It’s easier to fill it when it’s small.
So, let’s recap. There are some cases where you need to fill a baby tooth. Yeah, it depends on the age of the child, the age which the child is going to lose that tooth, the extent of the decay, and when the underlying adult tooth is going to come in. So, you should consider trying to fill it depending on those three things. Let me leave you with this because there were some parents that had real questions about this.
Remember, baby teeth do have roots on them. That’s right, they do have roots. And that means that baby teeth can abscess. And baby teeth can cause your child problems. Because of the roots because of the nerve. It’s really, really, difficult for decay to stay out of those areas because baby teeth do cause problems.
So, I want to thank you guys for joining me. Please share this with your friends. Thank you for all your questions and any other concerns that you have. I appreciate you reaching out to us and letting us know how we can help you keep your children’s teeth happy and healthy.
So, thanks again for joining us. We will see you guys next time in the next two weeks on Facebook. Live. That’s March the 12th. And we will see you then right here at 530 March 12. Thanks. Have a good evening. Bye bye.