Routine preventive steps to ensure dental health

Dr. Ken Schweifler writes in Los Altos Town Crier :

Fall is upon us and our children are donning their backpacks and heading back to the classroom. As families adjust to new school schedules and a more regimented, post-summer lifestyle, I felt it appropriate timing to share some dental prevention education to empower you and your loved ones.

I promote preventive dentistry because children with healthy mouths have a better chance of general health.

Dental problems can interfere with eating and adequate nutritional intake, speech and self-esteem. Children with dental pain may be unable to concentrate in school. Those who get off to a healthful start with routine dental visits and responsible home care can minimize the need for definitive treatment over the course of their lives, avoiding the unpleasant dental experiences that perhaps their parents have experienced.

Even in our relatively affluent community, I witness many unfortunate dental problems in children due to lack of prevention.

A patient recently brought his daughter to my office for the first time at age 6, motivated by a painful infection caused by a neglected cavity. A dental office can be a scary environment for many people, especially for a young child experiencing pain who is completely unfamiliar with the environment.

After extracting that hopeless tooth and treating several others that had advancing cavities, I sat down with her father to discuss preventive strategies. This is the same individual who only comes to my office when he’s experiencing his own dental emergencies and brought his 5-year-old son to my office three years ago with such advanced problems that he had to be referred to a specialist for “hospital-level” dentistry.

When I asked how his son was doing, he stated that he hadn’t been back to the dentist since that traumatic hospital experience. I was shocked. Clearly, my recommendations for getting on a healthful path of routine maintenance and prevention hadn’t altered this destructive cycle. I reiterated to him that all this pain and suffering, all this time and financial commitment, were 100 percent preventable. He holds a set of values where he believes a dentist is someone you see only when you have a dental emergency. Consequently, he’s on the verge of full mouth dentures, just like his parents before him.

Preventive dentistry begins when the first tooth erupts. We encourage daily cleaning and a first visit to a dentist at that point, or no later than 12 months of age.

The main objectives for a visit so early are to educate the parents on healthful preventive strategies, implement a preventive regimen, catch any destructive habits in their infancy and get the child accustomed to the dental office as a positive, nontraumatic environment.

After completing a thorough oral examination and assessing the child’s risk for developing cavities, a dental team can design a personalized preventive program for home care. Preschoolers generally lack the manual dexterity necessary for a thorough job and require parental assistance. It’s not enough to send your 3-year-old to the bathroom and expect that he or she is going to do an adequate job alone. With your support, your child can follow directions and create healthful habits that last a lifetime.

One thing is unanimously true for dental patients: They would prefer no dentistry, and more time and money to engage in other life pursuits. The least-invasive and least-expensive way to control your children’s dental problems is to ensure they never occur in the first place or are detected early enough to avoid extensive treatments.

As the father of three children under 6, I can relate to many of the same challenges and concerns that other parents face. You owe it to yourself and your family to take these simple, preventive steps to ensure that your family’s dental needs never become a needless source of stress.