Baby Bottle Decay
Why are baby teeth important since they fall out anyway?
Your child’s first set of teeth are important for a number of reasons:
- Function
- for your child to learn to chew, a crucial part of digestion, developing ability to masticate different foods.
- speaking, annunciation, language development and phonation.
- Form
- social, a beautiful clean and healthy smile enhances social interactions
- baby teeth are like a set of space maintainers for their permanent counterparts as that fractured, broken, prematurely loss teeth can lead to malocclusion (crooked teeth) in the adult dentition.
- the first set of teeth from the maxilla and mandible are important parts of the growth and development of the lower face.
- Health
- to be pain free when eating, drinking, talking
- early learning to care for oneself contribute to developing healthy habits for a lifetime.
As soon as teeth appear in the mouth, decay can occur.
One serious form of decay among young children is baby bottle decay.
Decay usually begins along the gum-line of a front tooth and then continue to spread to all of them.
This condition occurs when an infant is allowed to nurse continuously from a bottle of milk, formula, sugar water or fruit juice during naps or at night.
As the liquids pool around the child’s teeth during sleep, acids will attack the teeth and serious decay can result.
Even when bottle feeding has long stopped teeth with baby bottle decay remain at risk of further decay.
How to Prevent Baby Bottle Decay
There are easy ways to prevent baby bottle decay:
- Clean your child’s teeth daily.
- If a bottle is absolutely needed at sleep time, fill it only with plain water.
- Develop habit of giving plain water for thirst instead of sweet drinks.
- If you see brown spots on your child’s teeth, visit the dentist. Early treatment can prevent the permanent teeth from being affected.
Your child’s dental health can be affected by how and what they eat!
If you have more questions about baby bottle decay or keeping your children’s teeth healthy, please contact us. We are a child-friendly dentist in Burnaby. We accept patients of all ages!
Our next blogs: Thumb sucking, First Dental Visit and Malocclusion (crowded, crooked teeth).