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Growing smiles have very unique needs compared to adult smiles. Our team at Sunny Dental knows how to help children feel welcome and comfortable in the dental office and loves teaching children how to care for their teeth. With years of experience helping little smiles shine with children's dentistry in Lancaster, TX, we treat every child as if they were our own. Whether they just need routine checkups and cleanings, natural-looking restorations, or custom-made mouthguards for sports, we can teach your child healthy habits that lead to lifelong oral health. If it’s been awhile since their last dental appointment, give us a call.
Whether your child has all baby teeth, their permanent teeth, or a mixture of the two, it’s important to maintain a healthy smile. The baby teeth play an essential role in enabling the adult teeth to come in straight. During their semi-annual checkups and cleanings, our compassionate, friendly team can happily help prevent cavities and teach your little one how to care for their teeth every day at home.
As your child learns how to brush and floss properly, we can place dental sealants on their most vulnerable teeth. This protective barrier keeps food particles, plaque, and acids from touching the enamel surface. It’s a lot like putting a cover on your car! Dental sealants are a thin layer of dental plastic that is applied over the deep grooves of the back teeth. Even though this procedure takes only a few minutes to complete in our dental office, it is completely painless and can stop cavities for about 10 years.
Patients of all ages can benefit from fluoride treatments during their checkup and cleaning appointments, but this highly concentrated fluoridated paste is particularly useful for children because they are still in the process of learning proper oral hygiene. In addition to using a fluoridated toothpaste at home, these treatments will reinforce their enamel and significantly reduce their risk of cavities. After we clean their teeth, we’ll apply the fluoride, and within minutes they’ll be all set for the next six months.
Don’t be surprised if your child develops a “sugar bug” or two as they develop their oral hygiene skills. Cavities are fairly common, but our team can quickly fix the problem in just a single appointment. We’ll remove decayed enamel and replace it with composite resin, which can be colored to match the natural tooth. As a result, the tooth shouldn’t stand out or attract attention in your child’s healthy-looking smile.
Did you know that nearly half of all tooth-related injuries occur while playing sports? Just like you’d never send them out onto the field without their helmet, shin guards, or whatever other safety equipment they need, make sure that they have a mouthguard to protect their smile. Although you can find mouthguards in stores, these often get “forgotten” or left behind because they can be uncomfortable or ineffective. We can provide a custom-made appliance, which doesn’t have these common problems.
Parenting doesn’t exactly come with a how-to guide, so it’s only natural to have a few questions about how to care for your little one’s developing smile. For your convenience, we’ve compiled a few of the most frequently asked questions about children’s dentistry and answered them below. We can also answer any additional questions you may have when you call us or during your child’s first dental visit!
Since your child’s baby teeth are just going to fall out eventually, it may seem as through there is little point in taking good care of them. However, baby teeth play an important role in their oral health. They help your son or daughter chew, speak, and smile with ease. They also hold space in the mouth for the permanent teeth. If your child loses a baby tooth prematurely, whether due to injury or severe decay, the adjacent teeth will likely drift into the gap. This makes it difficult or even impossible for the adult tooth to emerge properly, increasing the chance that your child will need orthodontic treatment. For that reason, help them take proper care of their smile no matter how young they are.
Your little one’s first dental visit serves as a sort of introduction to the sights and sounds they’ll experience every time they see their children’s dentist. Kids who regularly visit their dentist are more likely to be comfortable seeking dental care on their own when they’re older. Plus, these appointments are great opportunities to examine your child’s smile and make sure everything is developing properly. If there are any issues, we can identify them early and administer swift treatment.
Our team will take X-rays of your child’s mouth at almost every checkup. X-rays allow us to detect potential problems that can’t be seen with the naked eye, such as decay in between the teeth or an issue with an erupting tooth. At Sunny Dental, we use all-digital X-rays, which greatly reduce radiation exposure, making them much safer for your son or daughter.
Thumb-sucking is a natural reflex in children, but most of them grow out of it by the time they’re four years old. However, if they continue to suck their thumb by age six, the habit may affect the permanent teeth that are coming in. The pressure of thumb-sucking can cause bite alignment issues, crooked permanent teeth, and other orthodontic problems. Your kids’ dentist is happy to provide guidance to help your child wean off this habit once they reach that age.
