Child Dental Decay - The Enemy is Plaque !!

How to prevent it, spot it, and treat it

Mom/Dad….this is the topic you want to become an absolute expert about!

Remember, the more you know about your child’s dental health, the better chance they have of reaching our primary goals together.

To repeat the recurring theme of this website, Child-Dentist Advisor wants you to raise your child to have a PAIN FREE dental experience. Once you have gained the knowledge you must apply these principles to your child every day! The best way to accomplish this goal is to prevent dental decay and gum disease. Once you fully understand how your child develops cavities you will be armed with the knowledge to prevent it. Like many things in life prevention is easy to understand, but difficult to apply. Together we can do this!

The Youth Tooth Guide is an easy to read and understand guide book for parents and children which cover every issue relating to dental health, tooth development, hygiene and prevention and more. Get the Youth Tooth Guide.

However, we do not know in advance if your child has a natural immunity to this process or not. As an ALL STAR PARENT you do not want to take a chance of your child having cavities. So be PREVENTION oriented and be a WINNER!

On page 24 of The Tooth Youth Guide there are charts that illustrate how plaque plus sugar = acid

And the second one acid + susceptible tooth enamel=decay

Plaque (Food debris) left on the teeth combines with sugar to produce acid. In the next step the acid plus susceptible tooth enamel may cause dental decay. To be successful in prevention we must break this chain of events. We are talking snacks here!

The amount of acid/decay produced by the foods eaten depends on many factors:

1. Most importantly how OFTEN we eat snacks


2. The concentration of SUGARS OR STARCHES in the food your child is eating.

3. How MUCH acid the bacteria can form (Varies with each child)

4. How STRONG the acid is in dissolving the tooth enamel

5. How LONG the food sticks to the teeth

6. As mentioned before your child’s SUSCEPTIBILITY to dental decay

Knowing how this process works, then using the preventive measures we recommend for your child should make this plan easier to follow.

As you better understand this information you now know that DENTAL PLAQUE IS THE ENEMY! Child-Dentistry Advisor will discuss the various methods you can use to REMOVE OR REDUCE dental plaque!

Now let's look at delay in more detail

Preventing Dental Decay in Children

Spotting Dental Decay in your Child

What does dental decay look like?

Dental decay usually looks like a brown spot on the chewing surfaces of the molars.The cuspids and front teeth may have brown spots along the gum line.Sometimes the front teeth have small “white” spots along the gum line as well. These “white” spots are places where the enamel has been damaged by poor oral hygiene caused by plaque accumulation.

IMPORTANT……….remember if you can “see” a cavity forming on one of your children’s teeth it is usually larger than you may think! To be on the “safe” side the American Dental Association now recommends that you bring your child to the dental office at the age of 12 months. This first visit reduces the chance of any small brown spots being undetected by your dental specialist.

At the 0ne year old dental visit you will be informed about preventive actions that you can take to raise your child cavity free for a lifetime. What a great gift to give to your children!

Treating Dental Decay

First of all the primary teeth allow children to chew food properly and efficiently. Second, as the permanent teeth start to erupt (about age 6) the primary teeth hold spaces open so the permanent teeth erupt into their proper place. Teeth are also very important

for proper speech and appearance.

Consequences of rotting teeth

Actually treating dental decay is usually a very routine procedure. If your child is young 2 to 6 years old your specialist may recommend using some sort of sedation technique. In our office we use Vistaril which is a very safe antihistamine. We give the medicine about one hour before the dental appoint time which gives the medicine time to relax your child. Sometimes we will use nitrous oxide (Laughing gas) to relax the children. We charge 25 to 150 dollars for the sedation procedure. I have been using Vistaril for the past 25 years. During that span of time we have used this procedure on at least 20 thousand patients without any side effects.

Removing dental decay for children is done the same way you as an adult would be treated by your dentist. We use a local anesthetic so your child is comfortable as the decay is removed and the filling material is placed. The dental procedures are fairly simple in most cases but patient management is not! That is why I usually recommend a pediatric dental specialist for your child…….read on.

Want to learn more about Decay and Prevention in more detail?

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