Who is a Pediatric Dentist
A pediatric dentist is often referred to as child’s dentists or Kid’s dentists. As the name suggests, pediatric dentists are specialists in the oral health of children. They are qualified and experienced enough to take care of a child’s teeth, gum and mouth from birth to adolescence.
Your child gets his/her first milk teeth at six months and a complete set of 20 milk teeth by three years. These milk teeth are crucial for your child’s development as they help in chewing, speaking, and spreading a smile. They also form the foundation of the permanent teeth by holding the shape of the jaw for the permanent teeth. Hence it becomes more than essential to take care of these milk teeth from a very early stage of your child’s life.
Pediatric dentists are specialized dentists trained in taking care of your child’s milk teeth and permanent teeth.
How are pediatric dentists different from general dentists?
It takes a lot of effort to become a dentist. A dentistry course requires four years of study to equip themselves with the knowledge and experience to treat your oral problems and become a general dentist. However, a pediatric dentist must undergo an additional three years of study and residency experience to becoming an expert in treating kids’ oral problems.
A pediatric dentistry study equips general dentists with the knowledge and skillsets necessary to treat your child effectively. In addition to studying a child’s dental problem and their treatment, a pediatric dentist also study a child’s psychology in dept to enable themselves to understand your child better and perform necessary treatment with minimal upset.
Should I take my child to a Pediatric dentist or my Family dentist?
You might have a family dentist who is helping you and your entire family keep your oral health in check. It’s a logical question that why can’t I take my child to my family dentist rather than a pediatric dentist. And the answer is you should not.
Your family dentist must be having a good understanding of the child’s teeth, gum, and oral cavity, but he/she does not have expertise in treating children. They may also not have extensive experience in handling child’s dental issues.
They are usually not equipped with all the types of equipment required for treating a child. As they don’t need that too often hence, they don’t invest in that.
Furthermore, most of the family dentist doesn’t treat child less than three years of age whereas you child needs dental care at much early age as its the critical age of oral cavity development.
On the other hand, a pediatric dentist is well equipped, knowledgeable, and has extensive experience handling your child’s oral treatment. In addition to this, they are also well experienced in working with children, making your child’s dental treatment anxiety-free and a memorable journey.
What Treatments Do Pediatric Dentist Provide?
A pediatric dentist can help maintain good oral health during the development of your Kid’s oral cavity. To understand a pediatric dentist’s role in our children’s oral health, we can classify their services into three broad categories.
- Treatment of Kid’s dental Problems
- Preventive Dentistry for kids
- Educating parents to maintain the good oral health of their child.
Treatment of Kid’s dental Problems
This involves treatment of any oral problem your kids might be facing. It ranges from early childhood caries to tongue-tie releases.
Preventive Dentistry for kids
A pediatric dentist can do the risk assessment of your child’s dental health and go for a preventive treatment like a fluoride application, sealants, etc. These treatments can help in the prevention of dental diseases.
Educating parents to maintain the good oral health of their child.
Your Kid’s oral health depends upon multiple factors. A good pediatric dentist provides dietary guidance, advice to maintain good oral health and acts as a resource for parents during the child’s teeth development.
Establishing a dental home for your child’s oral health.
We suggest establishing a dental home on or before the first birthday of your child. Dental Home is an ongoing relationship between your child and a pediatric dentist.
Establishing a dental home with Vanilla Smiles can help in maintaining optimal oral health for your child.
- We will do a comprehensive assessment of your child’s oral health.
- With the help of this assessment, we can work on a comprehensive oral care plan individualized to your child.
- This plan will include all the preventive dental care based on caries and periodontal risk assessment. This is important to save your child from probable dental complications.
- It will also help us assess any problem at a much earlier stage and be treated easily.
- In addition to this, diet counselling, acute dental trauma plan, and anticipatory guidance are few more benefits of establishing a dental home at Vanilla Smiles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question 1: What Is The Minimum Age For Visiting A Pediatric Dentist?
Answer: As per the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) recommendation, your Kid should visit us (a kid dentist) within six months of the first tooth eruption or by his or her first birthday at the latest.
Question 2: Why should I take my child so early to the dentist?
Answer: Early childhood caries (ECC) is very common in a growing child. Taking your Kid to a pediatric dentist at an early stage enables the dentist to evaluate your Kid’s mouth and may go for preventive treatment to avoid any dental problem at the early stage.
It also helps establish a dental home, a dedicated point of support for your Kid’s oral health.
Question 3: What Is The Importance Of Milk Teeth?
Answer: Milk teeth are crucial for your child’s oral health. Milk teeth help your child speak, chew the food properly, and spreads a beautiful smile. The permanent teeth are growing under the jaw, and milk teeth help them grow by holding the shape of the jaw.
Question 4: How old are Pediatric dentists' patients?
Answer: You can take your child to a pediatric dentist from his/her birth to the age of adolescence. Our patients are as small as few days old babies to 16-17 year young child.
Question 5: Is pediatric dentist more expensive?
Answer: Dentistry is not expensive; negligence is. You must have heard; prevention is better than cure. We want to improvise it to prevention is better than cure and cheaper than treatment. Taking your child to a pediatric dentist early saves a lot of pain and money too.
For more information kindly visit our website: https://www.vanillasmiles.dental/
Find clinic here: Get direction
Call Now: +919860633281
Address: Soni Capital, 2nd Floor, Near Shreyas Hotel, 1237, Apte Road, Shivaji Nagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411004 India
