Pedodontics

Pedodontics (Pediatric Dentistry) is a branch of science that treats diseases in the oral and dental tissues of children between the ages of 0-12 and practices preventive dentistry.

Dental treatments in children require special attention. It is necessary to know child psychology well and get them used to the dentist's chair without scaring them. If a child is afraid of the dentist once, this bad experience can affect him throughout his life and cause him to be afraid of going to the dentist even when he grows up. For this reason, pedodontists who specialize in pediatric dentistry can communicate with your children and provide routine dental treatments and provide preventive and emergency interventions.

There are 20 milk teeth in total. The first duty of milk teeth is to provide nutrition to the child. In addition, the proper development of speech depends on the presence of milk teeth. Milk teeth protect the space they occupy for the permanent tooth that will replace them and guide the permanent tooth while it erupts. When a primary tooth is extracted early, this natural placeholder function is eliminated.

Why Do Milk Teeth Decay Quickly?

Milk teeth contain more organic matter than normal teeth, so they are more prone to decay and decay more easily and quickly.
Children cannot interpret signals such as hot-cold sensitivity and mild pain, which can be seen in the early stages of caries, in a timely manner. They only realize the incident when the pain becomes unbearable, in which case it may be too late.
Children cannot pay as much attention to oral care as adults. The child's dexterity, curiosity and the parent's attitude determine the tooth brushing habit.
A mistake that mothers often make is to fill the pacifier or bottle with sugar, jam, etc. They should be given to children by dipping them in foods such as sugar, or they should be introduced to foods such as sweetened milk and fruit juice during sleep breaks. Thus, the teeth become susceptible to decay due to nutritional irregularities.

Children's first dental examination should be performed after teeth begin to emerge in infancy, usually between six months and one year of age.

Isn't One Year Old Too Early for an Examination?

The most important reason why the first dentist visit starts so early is that dentists show parents how teeth should be cleaned during infancy. In addition, it is of great importance to perform an oral and dental examination at a young age in order to protect children from early childhood caries, also known as baby bottle tooth decay, which can occur due to wrong eating habits.