With a great reputation for caring your little ones, our team is proud to be part of making dentistry a good experience for children to grow up with. While your little one’s "baby teeth" are only temporary, at Landmark Dental Centre, we believe that good oral hygiene habits for a happy and healthy smile are for life.
- Happy Visit
- Sedation Options
- Preventative Resins
- Child Root Canals
- Child X-Ray
- Space Maintainers
Happy Visit
Initial visits to our office typically happen 6 months after the first tooth appears. Usually, the happy visit simply involves an introduction to our office. We will actually spend more time discussing dental care with the child’s parent, as well as topics of diet and medications related to sugar and acid intake.
At this appointment, our goal is for the child to have lots of fun in the dental chair paving the way for their relaxed visits in the future.
Sedation Options
Conscious Sedation
Sedating a child for dental treatment allows the child to be treated in a less anxious state. Children usually do not remember the details for the procedures which can help them to come back for further treatments and also to avoid the fear factor that can lead to dental phobias in adults.
Your dentist at Landmark Dental Centre may recommend the use of laughing gas, Nitrous Oxide, during your child’s next visit for dental treatment because...
The age of the child – very young children have difficulty cooperating with treatment.
Length of the procedure – young children may not be able to sit still long enough to safely perform the procedure
Invasiveness of the treatment required.
The complexity of the required procedure
Oral Sedation
We also offer oral sedation for young children. The strawberry flavoured liquid (Midazolam) is administered in our office 30 minutes prior to the scheduled treatment time. This will leave the child sleepy, and most children will sleep for a few hours once returning home, then wake well-rested and happy. It is not for all children, and if behavior may be an issue, sedation will be offered before we refer the child to a pedodontist.
If sedation has been decided upon you must provide us with your child’s weight prior to the appointment and arrive 30 minutes before treatment begins.
Preventative Resins
A preventive resin is a glass ionomer coating that fills the deep grooves and pits of a tooth to help prevent decay. The resin is placed on the occlusal (biting) surface of the tooth and sometimes into the grooves on the sides of the tooth. This creates a smooth surface preventing food and bacteria getting caught and is much easier to clean.
Children's Fillings &
Root Canals
Even though they are considered baby teeth, if a cavity is detected in one of your children’s teeth it is in their best interest to have a filling. If left untreated a cavity can grow sometimes at a rapid rate and reach the nerve of the tooth causing the child a lot of pain and then more extensive treatment would be needed.
If decay is left unnoticed or untreated and the decay does extend to the nerve of the tooth a Children’s root canal may be needed. In this case the tooth is opened up and the nerve is removed and a soothing solution is placed, the decay is removed and a filling is placed.
X-Rays
As soon as a child has teeth that touch their sides together it is important to start taking x-rays to check for decay in between their teeth. Baby teeth are very small, with a thin enamel protective layer. The pulp of a baby tooth is very large – which means that decay can travel quickly through the inner dentin layer towards the pulp. As well as helping children to chew and speak, baby teeth hold spaces in the mouth for the adult teeth to erupt normally. Large areas of decay or unnaturally missing baby teeth can lead to problems with spacing for adult teeth.
We generally place white fillings in children’s teeth, as they allow the cavity prepared in the tooth to remain smaller, and are more conservative than silver fillings. If decay is deep and reaches the large pulp of a baby tooth, a special type of root canal is done at the same time as the filling to soothe the tooth.
Space Maintainers
Space maintainers are exactly as they sound. If a child looses a tooth prematurely there is the option of placing a space maintainer. This holds the space open allowing for the adult tooth underneath to erupt normally.
- Happy Visit
- Sedation Options
- Preventative Resins
- Child Root Canals
- Child X-Ray
- Space Maintainers