Healthy Milk teeth

 

Milk teeth (known as deciduous teeth) plays a significant role in initial growth period of every child. They help with various functions like chewing, speaking, facial structure and most importantly, they reserve space for permanent teeth. They are also known as natural space maintainers. Normally, the first tooth erupts at the age of 6 – 7 months and within 2 years of age, eruption of all deciduous teeth is completed. Permanent teeth present below them needs guidance for eruption and that is provided by deciduous/ Milk teeth.

It’s a common thinking that maintenance of milk teeth is not needed as they will fall and be replaced by the permanent teeth. But that is not true, as unhealthy deciduous teeth can lead to unhealthy permanent teeth. Untreated carious teeth may further cause infection in its successor teeth.

Unhealthy permanent teeth may cause many difficulties for the child like speaking, swallowing and most importantly chewing. Difficulty in chewing may lead to malnutrition affecting overall health of the child.

If the adjacent teeth of the open space trespasses in the empty area, there might be no space present for eruption of permanent teeth, which may lead to uneven eruption causing crowding and malalignment. This affects the facial structure of the child. Malaligned teeth are difficult to clean and might need a proper orthodontic treatment in future.

For avoiding these kind of problems, regular dental checkup is advisory. In 32 Pearls Dental Clinic each and every treatment for children is done by Pediatric Dentist.