Children’s Dentistry

Here at Newport Dental, new patients are always welcome and that includes the little ones.

Pediatric dentistry can be very important to ensure that children start learning and developing healthy habits from a young age as this can be critical in reducing the amount of dental issues they can have throughout life.

Teaching them how to brush properly and keep their oral hygiene high is very important but being able to prevent, correct issues and bad habits and monitor their growth and development can allow the dentist to evaluate them regularly and provide the best treatment for them at the correct age.

With treating issues at the proper stage the growth of the child can be used to benefit the treatment progress and stop issues such as narrow arches and mouth breathing before they do to much damage to the patient. Doing so, patients that have tendencies to have orthodontics issues including open bites ( teeth unable to meet) and scissors bite ( upper teeth biting on the inside of the lower teeth), treatment can be started and the redirection of growing bone can allow for very easy and quick treatment compared to when the growing has ceased.

Preventive treatment can also consist o doing small but very simple and non invasive procedures such as Preventive resin restorations on permanent molar teeth that have deep fiches and pits. These can usually be simply covered over by a tooth  coloured material to reduced the amount of sugars and bacteria that collect in the top of the adult molars.

When should I take my child to get an Orthodontic assessment?
Timing of treatment depends on a few factors including whether there is a skeletal imbalance, what stage of skeletal growth the child is in, any muscular or object habits, how much crowding there is. For example if the lower jaw tends to protrude or there is a longer looking face this most likely should be treated as soon as possible. Protruding upper jaws can often wait till stage 4 of cervical maturation of growth. With the aid of our modern German equipment we will be able to assess this when you come in. Even if there is no obvious problem children between the age of 7-9 years of age should have an OPG x ray to see if the erupting teeth are erupting under the permanent teeth straight underneath or angulated towards other permanent tooth roots. Studies show that there is over 90% chance that these teeth will straighten their path of eruption if the deciduous tooth in the way is extracted/space is made for the tooth to fit before the eruption force of the maligned tooth causes permanent damage to the permanent tooth it is angulated into.