4 Reasons Why Fluoride & Kids Are a Winning Combination
Most communities have embraced the presence of fluoride and added it to their public water supply. This means that both kids and adults receive a small portion each day which has been shown to reduce tooth decay by 25%. However, if you don’t live in an area where this is occurring or you want your child to have extra cavity protection, our Hudsonville, MI, pediatric dentist recommends fluoride treatments.
Here’s why fluoride should exist in your child’s life and continue to be used as they progress into adulthood.
What Fluoride Is & What It Does
is a mineral found in your bones and teeth. It can also naturally be found in water, soil, plants, rocks, and air. As far as dentistry is concerned, fluoride is used to help improve the health of teeth and keep pesky cavities away by preventing acid produced by bacteria from breaking down tooth enamel.
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Our pediatric dentist uses fluoride as a gentle, noninvasive approach to keep your child’s teeth in tip-top shape. This quick and painless procedure not only fends off future cavities but also works to treat existing cavities. All our pediatric dentist needs to do is apply the liquid fluoride directly to the surface of your child’s teeth and voila!
Be aware that after a is brushed on, you should avoid giving kids anything to eat for at least 30 minutes. This small time constraint ensures the fluoride is fully absorbed and doesn’t immediately get wiped off.
Fluoride Treatments for Kids Can Lead To:
1. Tooth Enamel That’s Stronger Than Ever
Your child isn’t likely to have thought about enamel much or considered its importance. Despite their lack of knowledge on the subject, one thing remains true: once enamel is gone, it doesn’t grow back. Weakened enamel, however, can be restored with the help of fluoride.
Let’s look at dental plaque for a moment. Plaque constantly forms on the teeth and after food or drinks are consumed, bacteria contained within plaque produces acids. Unfortunately, these acids like to attack the minerals in tooth enamel and cause demineralization, or loss of minerals.
That’s where fluoride comes in. The application of fluoride by our pediatric dentist works to remineralize your child’s tooth enamel and give it the strength it needs to fight decay.
2. Less (If Any) Cavities
Fluoride has the nickname of “nature’s cavity fighter” for a reason. After it’s been applied at our Hudsonville pediatric dental office, ingested through your community water supply, or introduced with toothpaste, fluoride strengthens the outer surface of teeth and makes it more resistant to acid attacks.
In addition to fluoride, you can also help your child prevent cavities with dental sealants. These thin coatings of tooth-colored resin are brushed onto the chewing surface of your child’s back molars and protect hard to reach areas from decay.
3. Early Tooth Decay Being Reversed
Severe tooth decay is never good for your child’s oral health. For instance, when the decay is past the point of no return, our pediatric dentist may be left to consider more extreme solutions like tooth extraction. This can be avoided thanks to fluoride.
Fluoride’s ability to remineralize weakened enamel helps create quite the defense system for teeth. Protection like this then makes your child’s teeth less susceptible to the formation of cavities.
4. A Reduction in Bacterial Growth
When our pediatric dentist uses fluoride, something interesting happens. The fluoride effectively kills the harmful oral bacteria that can cause tooth decay. Moreover, the application of the fluoride on any individual tooth can prevent those same bacteria from negatively affecting any surrounding teeth.
Less bad bacteria translates to there being less of a chance that your child will develop cavities or gum disease. Of course, we still recommend that you make sure your child is brushing their teeth at least twice a day with and remembering to floss once daily. Regular oral hygiene paired with our professional fluoride application will surely set your child’s smile up for success.
Schedule Fluoride Treatment
Our pediatric dentist in Hudsonville, MI, can apply fluoride quickly and painlessly to your child’s teeth, thus making it a no-brainer solution. If you’re still on the fence about it, however, we’d be happy to explain the benefits to you in greater detail so you’re fully aware of how fluoride works. Call Hudsonville Dental Kids today at (616) 209-4039 to schedule an appointment.
