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.
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?
Very young children with lots of cavities, who cannot cooperate for treatments of long duration.
Adults, to deal with sensitivity due to caries/ fractures/ tooth erosions
Children, prior to placing a filling material so that unnecessary deep cutting of tooth is avoided.
For more details, visit your paediatric dentist today!
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:
Laughing gas can be used in very anxious children and adults to calm them down before the dental procedure.
With laughing gas, treatment time is reduced and the dental surgeon can focus better on the tooth getting treated.
Recovery is immediate, with zero side effects, and it is non-addictive.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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:
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.
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?
We can use medications like nitrous oxide(laughing gas) delivered through a nose mask to keep your child relaxed throughout the procedure.
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.
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.
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!
Space maintenance is pretty straightforward. But what can be done in case it has been many years since extraction of milk teeth and space “loss” has already occurred?
That is when we “regain the
space”. Why? Because we do not want the permanent teeth to erupt crookedly!
“If braces are anyway needed, why
should we go through all this earlier? Can’t we correct it in one go?”..This is
another question normally asked by parents. You have to understand, the main
aim is to reduce the severity and duration of orthodontic treatment later.
Also, we are trying to bypass crowding and avoid extraction of permanent teeth
while fixing braces, which may otherwise be required.
The
designs are similar to space maintainers, except a spring or screw may be
inserted to open up space
How much time should these be worn? Depends on amount of space needed to “regain”. Your dentist will generally start fixed treatment with braces soon after this step.
Contact your nearest clinic today
for more information!
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.
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 4different 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 1/10th 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.
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.