Pediatric Smiles of Bloomington Blog

Pregnancy can be a stressful time at the best of times, and you should be thinking about your future as a parent rather than some gum infection. Unfortunately, hormonal changes during pregnancy can increase the risk of certain oral diseases. 

As recommended by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), you should bring your child to the dentist by their first birthday or whenever their first tooth grows in. This can allow for the dentist to make sure all your child’s teeth are growing in correctly and make sure your child doesn’t have any cavities. 

That being said, your child may be nervous or anxious for their first visit. It’s a new place with new sounds and sights and smells that they’re not used to. It’s going to be scary for them, so that’s why you need to be there for them and help them through it. Here are seven ways to prepare your child for their first visit:

Getting children to brush their teeth can be a grueling task, but it’s important for them not to have cavities. Not only will not having cavities not bring them pain and discomfort, it will also help with a healthy smile and painless dentist visits. 

Besides brushing their teeth, there are other ways to help your child have good dental hygiene, so here are some tips just for you parents:

For kids, dental problems come in all shapes and sizes. It can be as severe as a decayed tooth or as simple as bad breath, but each problem comes with its own solutions. Here are the top five most common dental problems:

Making children do anything that they don't want to can be a massive struggle for everyone involved. There’s a lot of crying, yelling, and temper tantrums. For some children, the causes of these could be eating their vegetables or going to be early. For other children, though, the causes of these crying sessions are brushing their teeth. 

You, as the parent, should be brushing your child’s teeth up until around age three to six. At this time, your child needs to start brushing their own teeth, but that can sometimes be a difficult task. Everyone knows the importance of brushing your teeth, but children don’t necessarily care about that. They care more if the activity is fun or not. Some children might simply hate brushing their teeth. They think it’s too hard or too boring. Whatever the case, though, there are many ways you can encourage your child to brush their teeth.

Preparing for a new baby is a stressful and chaotic time. There is so many items that you need to get before the new baby comes. And what if you forget something then have to rush to get it? 

To help you out, we’ve come up with a list of 15 healthcare items that any parent should have:

Around 50% percent of children will have some type of mouth injury. Children can be clumsy which causes periodic trips and falls. Sometimes when they fall, they injure themselves, and that could be scary for anyone. 

What are some common injuries?

• Cuts to the tongue: This is the most common because children could bite their tongue when they’re eating, but it also heals quickly.
• Cuts to the upper lip or frenulum (the piece of tissue that joins the upper lip to the gum): These are usually due to falling, and are also very common. 
• Cuts to the lower lip: These are usually caused by teeth catching on it when falling or eating. Most of these cuts aren’t severe and won’t need sutures, but sometimes, if the cut is big enough, it will. 

Your child’s first tooth should erupt between 6-10 months of age, but even before then, you should be wiping down your child’s gums with a damp cloth. As soon as that first tooth does appear, you need to start brushing their teeth with an infant toothbrush. Even infants can get cavities, known as baby bottle tooth decay, so it’s important to keep up with your child’s oral hygiene. The sooner you start a good oral hygiene routine, the easier it will be for your chid to continue doing it throughout their life.

There are several different types of toothbrushes that are suited for each stage in your child’s life. The types are:

When COVID-19 hit a year ago, nobody was prepared. We all scrambled to find a vaccine and solutions in the meantime to help decrease the spread of the disease. Besides staying socially distanced, the CDC recommended that everyone wear facial covering. After debates over whether a face shield was truly a face covering, people adopted wearing a cloth mask into a normal day. 

Taking your baby to the dentist for the first time can be scary for both of you. For your baby, it’s an all new environment with bright lights and weird smells and these weird things that make these weird sounds. It can be scary. 

For you, it’s your baby, and you don’t want anything bad to happen to them. That’s understandable. This experience can be overwhelming, but it’s a totally normal feeling to feel anxious, for both you and your baby, before your visit. So, here are some do’s and don'ts for taking your baby to the dentist: