Dental Speciality Clinic

Q. What are nursing caries?

A. Nursing caries, or tooth decay, can be caused by children sleeping with bottles. This is also called baby bottle tooth decay. It is caused when a child goes to bed with a bottle filled with milk or juice - anything except water. It usually affects children between the ages of 1 and 2 years. Breastfed infants who fall asleep while breastfeeding are also at risk.

Q. What are the symptoms of nursing caries?

A. The following are the most common symptoms of nursing caries. However, each child may experience symptoms differently.

 Symptoms may include:

white spots on the teeth

early development of cavities (brown areas on the tooth that lead to tooth destruction)

Q. How can I prevent nursing caries?

A. The following are suggestions to help prevent nursing caries:

Do not allow your child to go to bed with a bottle filled with anything but water.

Wean your child from the bottle in a timely manner.

Begin good early mouth care of the gums

and teeth.

Give fluoride supplementation, as recommended by your child's physician.

Have early dental visits for your child.

NURSING BOTTLE CARIES

RAMPANT CARIES

Is thumb-sucking bad ?

•Thumb-sucking isn't "bad" for the teeth, but prolonged thumb-sucking may cause problems with the proper growth and development of your child's mouth.

•Sucking is an infant's natural reflex. Infants and young children suck their thumbs or fingers to help them feel secure and happy, and since it is relaxing, it also helps induce sleep.

•Prolonged thumb-sucking can cause "open bites" that require extensive orthodontic treatment to straighten out. It may also make the front teeth protrude, which make the teeth more susceptible to injury.

•To help your child stop this habit, it is best to use positive reinforcement, including offering praise for not sucking their thumb. If your child sucks her thumb when she feels insecure, identify the cause of the anxiety and comfort your child.

•When you decide it's time to stop thumb-sucking (and it's best to try to break the habit before the permanent teeth come in, usually around age 6), talk to your child and create an action plan to break the habit. Pick a stop-date, use a chart or calendar to track her progress every day, and offer appropriate rewards.

  OPEN BITE ASSOCIATED WITH THUMB SUCKING

HABIT BREAKING APPLIANCE

Q. What role does fluoride play in preventing tooth decay?

A. You've probably heard that fluoride is a good thing for teeth. This is true. Fluoride, in moderation,  is a very good thing for teeth for people of all ages.

An exposure to fluoride (like that contained in toothpaste and city tap water) is probably the most effective cavity prevention treatment available today. Dental researchers have shown that just introducing fluoride into a (previously unfluoridated) city'drinking water supply can reduce its inhabitants' rate of tooth decay between 40 and 70 percent. Those are giant numbers.

Q. How does fluoride help to prevent tooth decay?

A. Fluoride combats the formation of tooth decay in three steps:

A) Fluoride promotes tooth remineralization.

   Researchers have discovered that fluoride enhances the tooth remineralization process. Fluoride found in a person's saliva will adsorb onto the surface of a tooth where demineralization (tooth decay formation) has occurred. The presence of this fluoride then in turn actually attracts other minerals (such as calcium), thus helping to speed up the rate or degree to which remineralization (reformation of tooth mineral) will occur.

To receive the benefit of this process fluoride must be present in a person's saliva. This is why drinking fluoridated tap water throughout the day would be a better choice (in regards to cavity prevention) than unfluoridated bottled water. This is also a reason why brushing with a fluoride toothpaste three times a day would be better than brushing just once a day.

B) Fluoride can make a tooth more decay resistant.

   Amazingly, the new tooth mineral that is created by the remineralization process when fluoride is present is actually a "harder" mineral compound than the one that was present when the tooth initially formed.

Teeth are generally composed of the minerals hydroxyapatite and carbonated hydroxyapatite. The tooth mineral that is created during the remineralization process when fluoride is present is fluorapatite. Fluorapatite is "harder" than other tooth minerals in the sense that it is more resistant to damage caused by acids (demineralization). So, astoundingly, not only does fluoride promote the tooth's remineralization but it also helps to create a tooth surface that is even more resistant to the formation of tooth decay.

C)  Fluoride can inhibit oral bacteria's ability to create acids.

   Dental researchers have found that fluoride can decrease the rate at which the bacteria that live in dental plaque can produce acids. This is because fluoride disrupts the bacteria's ability to metabolize sugars. The less quantity of sugar that the bacteria can consume, the less acidic tooth demineralizing waste products they will produce.

Conscious sedation, produced by the administration of certain medications, is an altered level of consciousness that still allows a patient to respond to physical stimulation and verbal commands, and to maintain an unassisted airway.

The purpose of conscious sedation is to produce a state of relaxation and/or pain relief by using benzodiazepine-type and narcotic medications, to facilitate performing procedures like extraction in anxious / mentally challenged patients and is most commonly used for dental procedures in unco-operative children and multiple extractions for orthodontic cases.

Dr Narendra Garach , Chief anesthetist at Asia Heart Hospital has been with us for the past 15 years and is specialized in this procedure.

The advantages of Conscious sedation are as follows:

• Complete co-operation of patient

• Painless recovery
  

• Multiple extractions can be performed at one time

• Extremely Safe