Keep It Clean: Why Your Child Needs Regular Dental Cleanings

Keep It Clean: Why Your Child Needs Regular Dental Cleanings

With our expertise and instruments, we can clean your child’s teeth to a degree that simply cannot be achieved at home. From there, your child has a baseline from which to begin the next six months of brushing, flossing and rinsing until we see him or her again. But there are other reasons to ensure that we clean your child’s teeth on a regular schedule:

• Regular visits ensure that your child is comfortable with us. Then, if a dental emergency arises, he or she will have been to the office fairly recently for a friendly, routine visit. That can reduce the amount of fear in what might otherwise be a scary situation.
• Checkups and cleanings give us the opportunity to remind your child—and you—of the proper techniques for brushing and flossing. We also give instructions for using disclosing tablets, which give children a visual way to understand plaque’s potential pervasiveness in a way they often find delightfully “gross.”
• At each visit, we check your child’s mouth for the beginning of potential orthodontic problems and can suggest a consultation with an orthodontist, if necessary.
• When you come in, we can discuss developmental milestones your child has reached, and we can help you determine where your child is on the path to adult oral health.
• During cleanings, we often take x-rays that can reveal not-yet-visible cavities, allowing us to fill them before more damage is caused. We can also apply a sealant and possibly recommend a fluoride mouth rinse to promote additional cavity prevention.

Finally, we use cleaning appointments to discuss good nutrition with both parents and children. If you have a really young one, we’ll offer some crucial advice: Switch your toddler from a bottle to a cup as soon as possible after his or her first birthday, and never let your baby fall asleep with a bottle or sippy cup of milk or juice. We look forward to talking about these topics with you and your child soon at KiDDS Dental.

Click here to schedule an appointment with Dr. Jared. Or give us a call at (509)-891-7070.

Mother's DAY? No way!

We'll be celebrating mothers ALL WEEK on Facebook
and one lucky winner will get a Kindle Fire HD 8 just for playing along.

Look for a new way to enter to win each day

May 5th through May 11th.

Contest Rules:

By entering this promotion, participant agrees to a complete release of Facebook from any or all liability in connection with this contest. It is also acknowledgment that the contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. No purchase is necessary to enter or win.

How to enter: Entries consist of following the directions (comment, "like," etc.) given in the official promotion posts on the KiDDS Dental Facebook page between May 5, 2019 at 9:00 AM and May 11, 2019 at 5:00 PM. One entry per promotion post per Facebook user is allowed. Multiple entries per promotion post will be disqualified.

Drawing: One random prize drawing will be held on or about May 13, 2019.  The winner will receive a Kindle Fire HD 8. This prize is valued at $89. Cash cannot be awarded in lieu of prize. Prize is not transferable. The winner is solely responsible for reporting and paying applicable state and federal taxes. If a winner is disqualified or if a prize is unclaimed, KiDDS Dental reserves the right to conduct another drawing to determine an alternate winner or to not award that winner's prize, at its sole discretion.

Odds: Actual odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries.

Eligibility: Legal residents of the United States are eligible to participate and win. Any person under the age of 18 must have a parent's or legal guardian's permission to participate and/or win.  Must be 13 years or older to enter. Employees of KiDDS Dental and their immediate families (spouse, parents, siblings, children, in-laws) are not eligible to enter. Winner must be available to pick up prize at KiDDS Dental in Liberty Lake, WA by May 17, 2019.

Decisions: By entering into the promotion, entrants and their parents or guardians (if the entrant is under the age of 18) agree to abide by and be bound by these official rules, and to accept the decision of KiDDS Dental as final.  Entrants and their parents or guardians (if entrant is under the age of 18) also agree to hold KiDDS Dental harmless from any liability arising from participation in this promotion. KiDDS Dental is not responsible for entries not received because of technical difficulties. KiDDS Dental reserves the right to disqualify any participant to a person who fails to follow these official rules or uses fraudulent means in participating. If for any reason this promotion is not able to be conducted as planned, KiDDS Dental reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend this promotion and randomly draw from the entries received up to the cancellation/suspension date.

Liability Release: By participating, each participant and winner waives any and all claims against KiDDS Dental their employees and agents for any personal loss of any kind which may occur from the participation in the promotion.

Publicity: Each winner (and such winner's parent or guardian if any winner is under the age of 18) agrees to permit KiDDS Dental to use his/her name and likeness in promotional and other KiDDS Dental materials, without additional compensation or permission, except where prohibited by law.

This promotion is void where prohibited.

By entering the contest, entrants grant KiDDS Dental license to display, distribute, reproduce contest entries. Winners must sign a media release and will be responsible for paying any taxes they may owe on a prize.

Keep Early Childhood Caries Away

Keep Early Childhood Caries Away

Dentists use the term early childhood caries (ECC), sometimes called baby bottle caries, to describe the presence of one or more decayed, missing or filled teeth in a child younger than six years old. Any sign of tooth decay in a child under the age of three years is considered severe ECC.

The presence of ECC has a major impact on your child’s present and future quality of life. Discomfort, pain, infection, abscesses and gastrointestinal disorders can all result from ECC. It may even lead to malnutrition and retarded growth because of pain, chewing difficulties and reluctance to eat. Other consequences of ECC include crooked teeth, delayed or restricted speech, and loss of space for succeeding teeth. The look of a mouthful of decayed teeth can cause psychological problems, including low self-esteem. And children with ECC have an increased risk of developing cavities in their permanent teeth as well.

How early should you be concerned whether your child is developing ECC? An infant’s first teeth may erupt as early as six months of age, and decay can attack your baby’s teeth as soon as they appear. That’s why the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dental Association both recommend an initial dental visit by your child’s first birthday.

Unfortunately, many parents delay that first dental appointment until the child is two or three years old. By then, severe ECC may have already set in. A 2006 study published in the journal Pediatric Dentistry presented evidence that children who do not see a dentist before the age of two years are more likely to require emergency visits and tooth restorations. That can get expensive. In fact, children who visit the dentist before their first birthday have 40% lower dental costs between birth and age five. These savings come from less need for dental and medical care resulting from poor oral health.

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry has coined a slogan to help parents remember: 1 + 1 = 0. One dental visit when the child has one tooth equals zero cavities. A visit to KiDDS Dental by the time the first baby tooth emerges can be the beginning of a preventive dental care program that will minimize tooth decay and cavities throughout your child’s lifetime.

Call us to schedule an appointment today!  509-891-7070. We’d love to meet you and your family!