Zirconia crowns

Nowadays, more than the parents, the children themselves are concerned about their teeth and want tooth coloured fillings! In order to appease this growing demand for “aesthetic solutions”, zirconia crowns were introduced to replace the available stainless steel crowns which gave a “metallic” look and feel.

As compared to stainless steel, zirconia crowns are harder and can be used to cap the front as well as the back teeth.

These crowns are available in pre-designated sizes. So the dentist has to do minimal cutting of the tooth to remove the cavities, select the size of the crown and fix it! All in one appointment.

These caps will last till the baby tooth falls off to make way for the healthy permanent tooth.

Before and After

See your child smile widely again!

The Silver Bullet

Wondering if this is about the latest action/thriller movie hitting the cinemas this weekend? No, it is not about a feared, underworld don either. It is about something less fearsome perhaps, silver diamine fluoride, fondly called the silver bullet.

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) is a colourless liquid, tried and tested by dental surgeons in Japan, since the past 40 years, to “arrest” cavities. It is also highly effective for the treatment of hypersensitivity.

The silver content helps in combating the bacteria responsible for deepening cavities. Together with fluoride from toothpastes, it converts “active” lesions (those that have a tendency to worsen) to “inactive” caries lesions (those that remain static for a long time). It is so much more effective than simple fluoride formulations! It is easy to apply too.

The only disadvantage, possibly, is that it causes staining of the cavity and turns it black due to the deposition of silver. However, a tooth-coloured filling material can be placed on top once the cavity is rendered inactive!

So, in which cases do we prescribe SDF?

1. Very young children with lots of cavities, who cannot cooperate for treatments of long duration.
2. Adults, to deal with sensitivity due to caries/ fractures/ tooth erosions
3. Children, prior to placing a filling material so that unnecessary deep cutting of tooth is avoided.

For more details, visit your paediatric dentist today!

Laughing gas

For a lot of people, especially young children, a visit to the dentist is a nothing less than a nightmare. This is where nitrous oxide comes into the picture. Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas as it is more popularly known, is a sweet-smelling gas known to cause instant “happy feelings” in the person inhaling it. So much so, in the 1900s, private parties in London were incomplete without laughing gas “booths.”

Consequently, it found a use in clinical settings with doctors using nitrous oxide to calm patients prior to operative procedures under general anesthesia. It was found to be especially effective in children. Nitrous oxide/oxygen is given through a small breathing mask which is placed over the child’s nose, allowing them to relax without putting them to sleep. Since it is inhaled and exhaled through the nasal mask, it doesn’t cause toxicity, unlike any other route of medication like oral or intravenous, wherein the chances of overdose are greater.

Some points to note:

1. Laughing gas can be used in very anxious children and adults to calm them down before the dental procedure.
2. With laughing gas, treatment time is reduced and the dental surgeon can focus better on the tooth getting treated.
3. Recovery is immediate, with zero side effects, and it is non-addictive.
4. Since it is a mild sedative and numbing agent, the child won’t remember the discomfort of the procedure. In fact, it brings about a feeling of euphoria, making the children ask for the gas again at the next dental visit.

Help us give your child a better dental experience and ensure your child leaves the dental office with a smile!

Children and Colours in the Paediatric Practice

Have you noticed how all play schools, paediatric therapy centres, hospitals and clinics are brightly coloured?

As parents you must have also noticed your child being drawn to “happy” colours and lights. Basically, children love colour!

1. Sight starts developing around the sixth month post birth and continues to develop till age 10. Bright colours are easy to distinguish and that is why babies are drawn to it.
2. Research has shown that the colour of the environment affects the mood and consequently the behavior of the child. That is why primary colours like green, blue, yellow are preferred. The have a calming effect. This is true for adults also. Try changing to bright clothing if you are depressed or anxious about something!
3. Children have a very wide imagination, especially at the ages of 5-7, when the brain is at maximum capacity. Also, they can be distracted easily by paintings and cartoons at this age. We make maximum use of this fact to manage the behavior of the child at the dental clinic

That is why, colours are so important in any paediatric practice. Gone are the days of the starched, boring white coat, which only instilled fear in the child! Printed or coloured aprons are preferred by paediatric surgeons as they “click” with children.

No paediatric dental practice has monotonous or muted colours. They are always bright and cheerful, just like how we want your child to feel after every appointment!

Handling of child in the Paediatric dental clinic

Children have varying attitudes and temperaments. No two children are the same. In fact, the same child on different days may behave differently!

Managing different behaviours, at the same time instilling a positive dental attitude is one of the greatest challenges of paediatric dentistry and paediatric dental surgeons are specifically trained in child psychology to manage child behaviour at different ages! So, let us take a small peek into the various techniques we use to our advantage:

1. Audio-visual distraction: Children, especially of the age group of 5-7 years are easily distracted! So a TV screen with brightly colored cartoons or educational videos/ soothing music is a great way to keep the kids occupied while we work in their mouth.
2. Modelling- Children learn a lot from their siblings/peers. Generally while treating siblings, we treat the older, more mature one first while the younger one looks on. Works like magic!

Of course, establishing communication is key. Paediatric dentists generally use soothing voices/ simple words to explain the procedure to the child. No other technique compares to this! Once we gain the child’s trust, we can work wonders!

At the same time, slightly changing to a more authoritative tone is also done in case the child is not behaving properly. Worked for our parents, right?

What can be done if your child is simply too young or too anxious or has special health care needs?

1. We can use medications like nitrous oxide(laughing gas) delivered through a nose mask to keep your child relaxed throughout the procedure.
2. If the child is very fearful and does not allow us to even place the nose mask, we resort to giving medicines either orally (through the mouth) or I.V, in the presence of a certified anaesthetist.
3. If multiple treatments are required and we simply cannot manage in the clinic settings, it is better to go for treatment under general anaesthesia where the child is completely unconscious.
4. These methods have an added advantage that they cause a bit of amnesia… so the child does not remember the details of the procedure and give an overall “feel-good” factor.

Many parents defer treatment as they feel their child is too young and finally approach us, when the pain becomes unbearable. This is not a wise thing to do, as the age of the child does not matter. It is the way we handle them, that does.

Visit your nearest clinic today and gift your child the smile they deserve!

Medium for Re-implanting tooth

When a tooth completely comes out of socket it is called AVULSION of tooth. In this scenario the golden time to reach a nearby dentist is 60 minutes.

Never clean the tooth or root with a scrubber or tooth brush

Never carry the tooth dry or in a box wrapped of paper

Preferable mode of carrying the tooth are regular milk (not hot), tender coconut water, patients saliva, HBSS, cotton, lens solution, in patients own mouth saliva, placing it back in the tooth socket etc.

If these above instructions are followed then success rate for re-implanting the dislodged tooth is very high.

For more details visit www.toothtrauma.in

How safe are the full mouth X-Rays?

In the last post, we had seen the uses of full mouth X ray called Orthopantomogram (OPG).

The benefits are more, agreed, but what about the safety? So let us go back to basic mathematics here:

Imagine a child is having cavities at 4 different places in the mouth. With a basic intra oral film, we can see a maximum of two /three teeth properly in a particular area. That means if cavities are there in four completely different places, we have to take 4 separate films. Meaning 4 times we have to expose the child to X Rays.

Instead is it not better to take a single large film with single dose to see all the areas in the mouth?

That being said, dental Xrays make up just 1/10^th of the environmental radiation a person is exposed to on a daily basis..

In addition, the child is draped with a lead apron and collar for extra protection.

In conclusion, an OPG is completely safe. And completely required, if the full mouth is to be seen at one go.

Kidz ‘N’ Teenz introduces the world’s smallest OPG machine to address the patient’s time and travel issues. We are upgrading to provide all treatment in house!

In children aged 6-9 years, it is very critical when it comes to trauma in the front teeth especially, to know outcome of their problem at later date.

Reason cited is that front teeth erupt at age of 6-7 years or 7-8 years, but root completion of teeth happens after 3 years, that is 9-10 years.

In this window period of 6-10 years if any trauma occurs to pulp of tooth or any trauma occurring without breakage of pulp, it can be managed by a 2 stage process called Apexification or Apexogenesis.

First followed by root canal treatment and later is an intermediate process usually done with help of MTA at the level where fracture has happened.

The advantage of MTA is that it aids in helping roots to grow so that the root canal can be carried out effectively.

To know more about tooth trauma visit  www.toothtrauma.in

Sequelae of tooth trauma    

Sequelae in layman term mean the after effects of the incident. In our scenario, it implies the after effects of dental trauma of teeth. What happens after incident of trauma has occurred. After effects of fall immediately would be some blunt injury to tooth or broken part for which we do splinting or replace broken part by means of a filling. Point to be noted by the public is that the problem is not rectified immediately, but only momentary treatment is done at that point of time e.g. chipping of tooth.

BEFORE

There is a process which can be initiated after this trauma, which is nerve damage or pulpal damage or blood vessel damage to a particular tooth

AFTER

Each tooth internally has a chamber called PULP which actually provides life for tooth. It is like heart to the body. When the trauma or fall occurs this pulp also can get injured. This injury is not seen immediately in most of the situations. It happens in due course of time. For some people it takes days, for some it takes months, for many situations it takes many years. The only visible change that a common man sees is change in color of the tooth.

Color can change either to dark yellow or grayish white, blackish grey etc.

Most important point to be noted is that even though color change happens, the tooth doesn’t cause pain immediately. May be over a period of time it can provide a small low grade discomfort to the person which is ignored most often. When a person comes for a dental consultation a good dentist will elicit and provide needed solution for this problem.

Most of the time considering there is no symptoms or signs of the problem, the person having this issue will ignore the treatment getting done, sitting lack of time, no pain or not believing the dentist.

There will be a moment in his life, when the immune levels come down due to some viral infection. At that point of time this problem will also get activated causing localized swelling, severe pain, discomfort etc.

At this moment when we take an x-ray or elicit the vitality (life of tooth), we are able to assess the root canal and it is severely damaged due to fall or a hit at his/her earlier age. So the dentist gives option of multiple visit for root canal treatment, periapical enucleation (episiotomy).

Sometimes even extraction (removal of tooth) is an option.

So never take trauma to permanent tooth very lightly.

For more details about tooth trauma check out –  www.toothtrauma.in