Three major misunderstandings about children's tooth decay! 90% of parents have made the third misunderstanding!

Nowadays, children's dental health problems, especially dental caries, are receiving more and more attention from parents. At present, the dental caries rate among children in my country is on the rise. Although parents are gradually paying attention to their children's dental caries, the rising dental caries rate may also be related to parents' misunderstanding of their children's dental caries.

Myth 1:

Having pit and fissure sealing is equivalent to filling the surface of the molars where food is easily stuck. You don't have to worry about tooth decay and can eat sweets without worry.

Correct answer:

Fissure sealing only protects the surface of the molars, not the adjacent surfaces of the teeth; the filling material may also fall off.

After the pit and fissure sealant, you still need to develop good tooth care habits. It is wrong to think that after the pit and fissure sealant, you can eat sweets without worrying about it.

When it comes to fissure sealants, let's start with the types and structures of teeth. Children's teeth are mainly divided into three categories: incisors, canines, and molars. Molars, commonly known as large teeth, are mainly responsible for chewing. They are the teeth that come into contact with food the most and for the longest time, and are therefore the teeth most susceptible to caries. Because the occlusal surface of the molars, like the stones in a cave, has depressions of varying depths, they are called pits and fissures in stomatology. These pits and fissures are very easy to be impacted by food debris, which creates conditions for the occurrence of caries. If the pits and fissures are filled with materials that are compatible with the human oral environment, such as resin, then food debris will have nowhere to stay, and the probability of tooth caries will be greatly reduced. This is the significance of pit and fissure sealants.

However, pit and fissure sealants also have their limitations. First, they only protect the occlusal surface of the molars, not the adjacent surfaces of the teeth. They are powerless against caries that occur at the contact surface between teeth, which is very common. Second, if the pits and fissures of the molars are shallow, the adhesion of the resin material will be weakened, so it is easy to fall off during the continuous eating and chewing process.

Therefore, pit and fissure sealants can only protect the occlusal surface of molars and those with deep pits and fissures. They have no ability to protect the adjacent surfaces of teeth, and have weaker protection for molars with shallow pits and fissures. Therefore, even if children have undergone pit and fissure sealants, they still need to develop good eating and oral hygiene habits and should not eat sweets at will.

Myth 2:

Baby teeth will be replaced by permanent teeth sooner or later anyway, so as long as it doesn't hurt, it doesn't matter if the baby teeth are decayed.

Correct answer:

Painless tooth decay is more dangerous! If tooth decay affects the tooth root or even the alveolar bone, it is a "time bomb" that not only affects the development of permanent teeth, but also causes chronic inflammation.

Most of the caries in deciduous teeth do not hurt, but the harm is not small. As the saying goes, toothache is not a disease, but it is really painful when it hurts. Many times, our fear of caries comes from the pain it brings. So when it hurts and causes physical discomfort, we will think of seeking medical treatment; as long as it does not hurt, even if caries already exist, we rarely pay attention to it.

However, a cruel reality is that most of the caries in deciduous teeth are painless, especially the interproximal caries between teeth. The harm of interproximal caries is that it destroys the contact surface between the two teeth, leaving no support between the teeth, which can cause problems for the entire dentition.

The harm of tooth decay that does not hurt is not limited to this. As the decay deepens, it will damage the tooth nerve and cause inflammation of the tooth root. At this time, this tooth decay that does not hurt is like a "time bomb". If the human body is tired or the immune system is weakened, it will flare up: more severe pain and swelling will occur; some chronic inflammation may also form infectious cysts, causing damage to the jawbone.

When there is too little tissue left to fill the carious tooth, or inflammation has caused severe damage to the tooth root and alveolar bone, and the tooth cannot be saved, the only option is to extract the tooth. But even if the rotten tooth is extracted, there will still be many subsequent troubles: for example, after the tooth is extracted, the permanent tooth has not yet erupted. At this time, the problem of tooth gap should be considered. A treatment plan for maintaining tooth gap should be formulated based on the child's age, the size of the tooth gap, and the estimated time for the permanent tooth to erupt.

Therefore, do not wait until your child has a toothache before you take him to the dentist, because most cavities do not cause pain signals. You should still take your child to a regular hospital for regular oral examinations to detect cavities early and treat them in time, so that the treatment effect is best.

Myth 3:

Candies and desserts are most likely to cause tooth decay, so as long as your children stay away from "sweet" things, tooth decay will stay away from them.

Correct answer:

Sugar can be found everywhere in all kinds of food, not only in candies and desserts, but also in more hidden forms. What we parents need to do is not to make our children give up sugar, but to teach them to eat sugar in a scientific and reasonable way.

Eating sweets scientifically can prevent tooth decay. Candy is one of the most beautiful taste memories of almost everyone's childhood. Parents do not allow their children to eat candy because they are afraid of tooth decay. This is tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It is a bit simplistic and crude. In fact, through scientific and reasonable ways to eat "sweet", children can enjoy the sweet taste while staying away from the trouble of tooth decay.

In addition, parents should not think that only candy and chocolate are sugar. In fact, biscuits, bread, rice, noodles and other foods and fruits all contain carbohydrates. When eating sugar scientifically, we should also emphasize eating scientifically. Eating for too long, eating with rice, and eating too frequently can easily lead to tooth decay, which is probably the reason why many children who almost "don't eat sugar" have tooth decay.

Factors such as the frequency of eating sweets, the amount, and the viscosity of food will affect the occurrence of dental caries. Frequency is more important than amount. The probability of dental caries caused by eating the same amount of sweets all at once is much lower than eating them multiple times in small amounts. Because sweets are constantly entering the mouth, the mouth is always in an acidic environment, which can easily induce dental caries. In addition, sweets with high viscosity, such as bread, biscuits, and cakes, are easy to adhere to the surface of teeth and are difficult to remove. It is recommended that children should reduce the intake of these foods. Moreover, it cannot be ignored that long-term drinking of sweetened beverages such as cola and soda is not only the main factor causing childhood obesity, but also a cause of dental caries and acid erosion such as blackening of teeth in children. Therefore, the intake of sweetened beverages for children should also be controlled.