If a child has tooth decay, should they treat it first or wait for their teeth to change?

Science expert: Wu Huiwen

Unit: Foshan Rehabilitation Hospital

Imagine that in the morning, when you brush your baby's teeth, you find a small black hole on his tooth. Do you think to yourself, "Let's brush it again, it must not be clean enough", and finally brush it again, and the hole is still there! After that, when you think about taking your baby to the dental clinic and smell the disinfectant coming from the dentist's passage, your mind is buzzing, "Forget it, forget it, forget it, the little tooth still needs to be replaced, and it won't hurt. The baby's teeth have cavities, and whether it hurts is the most important thing." Is it just like that? If you think so, it only shows that you still know too little about dental caries. In order to help you truly understand dental caries, please read the following article carefully.

1. What is dental caries ?

Tooth decay and tooth cavities are medically called tooth decay, which is what we often call dental caries. It is a bacterial infectious disease that is easily caused. Once the disease occurs, small black or brown holes or larger holes will appear on the child's teeth. These holes are like "rat holes" and are in the shape of "small mouth and big bottom". Although it looks like a small black dot on the surface, what you don't know is that the deep tissue inside may have been seriously decayed. So what are the reasons for this situation? First of all, the child's diet structure is a major inducement. If a child likes to eat snacks, candies, and drinks in daily life, and does not pay attention to oral hygiene, it will lead to his or her gradual development of dental caries.

2. If a child has tooth decay, should they treat it first or wait for their teeth to change?

In life, many parents think that their children will get new teeth sooner or later, so if the decayed teeth don’t hurt, they don’t need to worry about it. In fact, this is wrong. If not treated in time, the decayed holes are easily filled with food, difficult to clean, and easily spread to other teeth. In severe cases, they will be infected and painful, which will affect their diet and sleep quality. Especially if the decayed holes in the deciduous teeth continue to develop into apical periodontitis, the growth of the permanent tooth embryos under the deciduous teeth will be inhibited, resulting in the growth of the teeth being blocked and eventually leading to the stagnation of tooth growth. Alternatively, if a tooth falls out prematurely due to decayed teeth, the vacant space will be occupied by the adjacent teeth, so that the permanent teeth will not have enough space to erupt, causing them to "take a shortcut" and grow from one side, thus causing uneven teeth.

3.What are the harms of caries in deciduous teeth?

3.1 Hindering chewing and digestion

Caries in deciduous teeth not only causes tooth loss, but also causes pain when children eat, which reduces their chewing ability and causes food to be sent to the stomach without being completely chewed, increasing the pressure on the stomach, which in turn has an adverse effect on the baby's physical health.

3.2 Inhibits the development and eruption of permanent teeth

If caries in deciduous teeth are not treated in time, it will not only lead to apical periodontitis, but also have an adverse effect on the development of permanent tooth germs, leading to serious consequences such as incomplete enamel development, abnormal eruption, uneven arrangement, and failure to grow permanent teeth.

3.3 Causes malocclusion

In the case of caries in deciduous teeth, children have to chew on the other side for a long time. Over time, the child will develop symptoms such as jaw deviation and facial asymmetry. If the child's front teeth have more serious caries, resulting in larger defects and loss of normal occlusion, the common "front teeth open bite" will be formed.

3.4 Impact on children’s mental health

You must not think that children do not know what beauty is. I don’t know if you have noticed that when you praise a child, especially a little girl, as a cute and beautiful baby, she will be particularly willing to get close to you. Therefore, if the baby’s front teeth become black, yellow, or defective due to caries, it will have a negative impact on the baby’s appearance, make the baby feel inferior, and be unwilling to speak, which will have a certain negative impact on their psychological development.

4.What are the specific treatments for various types of dental caries?

4.1 Drug therapy

This method is suitable for the early stage of permanent tooth enamel, when the child's teeth have no cavities yet, and within one year, the shallow cavities adjacent to the deciduous teeth and the cavities on the surface of the deciduous molars will be replaced by new permanent teeth. The doctor may use the most common anti-caries drug in clinical practice - fluoride salts for treatment. Generally speaking, treatment is required 1-2 times a year, but if the child's oral hygiene is relatively poor, it is necessary to increase the time.

4.2 Filler therapy

When the child's initial caries is too deep to be mineralized with drugs, doctors must perform fillings. Currently, the most commonly used oral restoration method in clinical practice is to use a high-speed mobile phone to remove the carious tissue of the tooth, prepare the hole, and fill it with filling materials, so that the appearance and function of the tooth can be completely restored.

4.3 Root canal therapy

If the child's dental caries has developed to a certain extent, then the dental pulp may become inflamed due to dental caries. At this time, root canal therapy is required, which is commonly known as "nerve-killing therapy". This method uses mechanical removal and chemical sterilization to remove the inner wall of the formed root canal, sterilizes it with drugs, and then fills it tightly to completely remove the bacteria in the root canal.

4.4 Preparation for full crown restoration

After the root canal surgery of deciduous teeth, the child's tooth defect will be relatively large, which may affect chewing. At this time, a preformed full crown can be used for restoration. Because the preformed metal crown of deciduous teeth is a prefabricated stainless steel metal crown that fits the teeth very well, and after proper grinding of the deciduous teeth, it can be tightly fitted to the diseased teeth with the help of adhesives, thereby protecting the deciduous teeth, improving the rigidity of the teeth, and enabling them to maintain normal shape and normal chewing performance. At the same time, it effectively prevents the filling from falling off, secondary caries and tooth fracture.

5. Why do babies still get cavities even though they start brushing their teeth at an early age?

In clinical practice, we often hear parents ask, "Doctor, my child started brushing his teeth very early, why does he still have cavities?" The answer is that you are not brushing the right teeth. Generally speaking, we recommend that you brush your teeth twice a day, and each time for at least three minutes. It is best to use the Bass brushing method. Especially when brushing your child's teeth, you must control the strength and method, and start brushing from the innermost teeth, otherwise the child will feel uncomfortable and unwilling to brush.

6. Does your child have cavities? Should he eat less sweets?

For the sake of your child's oral health, it is recommended that you control the number of times your child eats candy and the oral hygiene after eating. Compared with eating the same amount of candy at one time, frequent intake of sugar is more likely to cause tooth decay. Therefore, whether eating sweets or eating, you should concentrate your intake within a specific time to effectively reduce the occurrence of tooth decay. In addition, after eating candy, you should also urge your child to use a toothbrush or mouthwash to clean his mouth.

7. Two magical ways to effectively prevent tooth decay

7.1 Fluoride application

The so-called "fluoride coating", also called "topical fluoride", is that the dentist evenly applies a high-concentration fluoride solution to the surface of the teeth, allowing it to adhere to the surface of the teeth and form a "protective film" on it, thereby achieving the purpose of preventing and treating caries.

7.2 Pit and fissure sealing

It is an organic polymer resin material. After hardening, it seals the deeper pits and fissures of the teeth and makes them shallower, thus forming a barrier that attaches food residues and microorganisms to the tooth surface, making it easier to clean the tooth surface and prevent the occurrence of caries.

8. Conclusion

In summary, when children's teeth are decayed, they should not blindly wait for tooth replacement, but should be treated in time. Strive for early intervention to avoid tooth pain and infection in children, and effectively ensure their chewing and nutrition intake. Therefore, it is recommended that parents must pay attention to their children's oral hygiene. Once tooth decay is found, take the children to the doctor as soon as possible to help the children show their white teeth confidently.

Disclaimer: The pictures in this article are from the Internet