First let’s look at a photo, this is a photo of an eight-month-old baby’s teeth. As you can see from the photo, there are some problems with the baby’s teeth. The surface is not so complete, and the color has changed. Some of the teeth have been chipped off. In the clinic, including on Weibo or other online platforms, many parents will send such photos to consult. Some doctors say the baby’s teeth are underdeveloped. Is this underdeveloped teeth? I don’t know what kind of opinion mothers and fathers are listening to now? Is it underdeveloped baby teeth? Or is it some other problem? Let’s analyze it next.
One.
Since today’s topic is tooth decay of milk teeth, we should first understand what is the problem. Then we must first understand what is dental caries? Simply speaking, tooth decay is tooth, also called tooth decay, that is, the tooth is decayed. In the past, it is also called worm tooth. In the past, we thought it was like a tree that was hollowed out, that is, the cavity was decayed. So is it a cavity or not? I think all the parents here who are attending the micro-course know that it is definitely not decayed by bugs, it is caused by bacteria.
So let’s clarify a few simple concepts. Firstly, tooth decay is formed later in life, not that it is born with tooth decay. It is formed by acquired reasons. Then the caries is not related to the lack of calcium. Many parents including some doctors. When they see the baby’s caries, they say they need calcium supplement, but in fact, there is no relationship between caries and calcium deficiency, there is no necessary connection, so calcium supplement can’t cure caries.
Then we also mentioned that tooth decay is caused by bacteria decomposing the sugar in the food we eat in the mouth. Especially some refined sugar. Including some candies, some chocolate cakes and pastries, delicate sugar, including some drinks. Then decompose these sugars and produce some tooth-destroying substances. Finally, the teeth are destroyed and caries is produced. Then there is no age limit for the rest of tooth decay. Many parents are wondering, especially some of them do not know much about professional knowledge and medical knowledge. Why does the caries occur in the baby in a few months? It seems that we have never heard of it. Then, it should be clear here that as long as the teeth exist, it will occur caries.
II.
So what is the caries like? What kind of situation, we find that the baby’s teeth appear such a situation is the caries? Note that the first point is the intact teeth, which are intact when they first grow out. After a period of time, the surface of the tooth is not complete, and then there is even a hole, or the tooth is missing. At the same time, most of them contain color changes, and some of them even turn black and yellow.
But it doesn’t mean that it is not caries if it doesn’t turn black. In addition, when the caries just happened, we do not feel anything. Not until the tooth hurts, then it means that the caries is very serious, and it may even cause water, inflammation in the root of the tooth, and infection. Through what we analyzed just now, some concepts about tooth decay, some common sense. Then we can easily conclude.
The picture that I put up at the beginning is not a congenital disease such as underdevelopment of young teeth. Because we can see that the two teeth next to it are good. These are the early caries. This is a typical feeding caries, which is mentioned later or called bottle caries.
Parents who have attended the last Dental Care Day course may know that the milk teeth are the first set of teeth, which will be replaced to become the second set of teeth. Traditionally or many old people often say that the milk teeth will be replaced anyway, and it does not matter if they are decayed, they will be replaced anyway. Is this concept correct or not? Do we need to treat the decayed baby teeth or not? Or do we need to prevent our baby teeth? Do we need to protect our baby teeth? I think all the parents here should be very clear about this answer. Tooth decay of baby teeth definitely needs to be treated. But more importantly, we need to pay special attention to prevent the occurrence of decay of our baby teeth and protect our baby teeth. Because the baby tooth is also a very important organ in our life. Before the permanent teeth grow out, we need to use the baby teeth to chew food, eat, pronounce and stimulate the normal development of our jaws and face.
At present, the prevalence of dental caries in children’s milk teeth is very high in China. The latest data shows that by the age of about five, about 80% of children will have caries. So dental caries is one of the most important diseases that seriously affect children’s health. Therefore, we should do a good job to prevent and treat the caries of milk teeth in time. After what we have just shared, we need to remember what is the situation of the caries of milk teeth. In addition, we must remember that our caries must be treated in time. Of course, it is more important to protect it well. So let’s see what are the dangers of the decay of milk teeth? Why do we say that the caries of milk teeth also need to be treated? The baby teeth are also very important.
III.
There are many hazards of tooth decay, we should understand from two big aspects. One is local, on the oral cavity and jaw face, the local impact of our face.
The first one will directly affect our chewing function, that is to say, affect our eating. This should be easily understood by everyone. Teeth are used to eat, so if the teeth are gone, then we have no way to chew. Many times, like in the past, there are many elderly people who have lost their teeth, then the quality of life, including the health of the whole body will be seriously affected. Then children are no exception, like what we see on the picture. This child has very serious tooth decay, so you can imagine what he can eat with such teeth, right?
He may only be able to eat some soft food and liquid food. For children who are growing and developing. The impact on health is very big and obvious. So is it important to say that milk teeth are important? The answer should be clear, especially for our baby’s future growth and development to provide adequate nutrition and to do a good job of safeguarding, which is very important.
Besides affecting the food, many parents also worry about whether the decay of the baby teeth will affect the growth and development of the permanent teeth. Then this is also a very clear answer. The serious caries of the baby teeth will cause the abnormal development of the permanent teeth. How is this caused? Then every milk tooth, that is, the upper teeth on the top or the lower teeth on the bottom are the corresponding permanent teeth growing and developing, if the caries of milk teeth is serious, it will directly affect the growth of permanent teeth. Like the arrow in the photo, it will cause the development of permanent teeth.
There is another effect on the growth and development of permanent teeth. If the milk teeth are lost early and the bone is destroyed, it may lead to abnormal eruption of the permanent teeth. In layman’s terms, for example, if the milk teeth are broken, they will close early and be laid off early. Then the permanent teeth sometimes have to come out early. At this time, the permanent teeth that come out early are like a premature baby. It may not be able to function formally, or in the oral environment is prone to problems, or even loose and fall off.
Another effect is the position that the baby tooth originally occupies. If it breaks down early, then its corresponding teeth may shift to occupy this position, which is easy to understand, like the two teeth shown in the photo, there will be a shift of teeth. Then there will be no position for the teeth when they grow in the future, and there will be problems such as uneven alignment of teeth.
And when the serious tooth decay may lead to the inflammation of the root of the tooth, and finally the root of the tooth will be exposed, it will damage the gum or the mucous membrane of the upper lip in the mouth, and cause the ulceration of the mucous membrane of the gum, just like the situation in the photo is also very common. The above is that if the milk teeth have caries, it may cause local impact on the local mouth and incisors. Next, let’s take a look at what kind of impact it may have on the whole body.
IV.
Tooth decay of milk teeth is not only the problem of teeth, but also has a very important effect on our whole body. If there is tooth decay, the pain will be serious, and the pain will cause some infection and fever, or it may cause some corresponding internal organs disease, which may be rare.
At the same time for the face, the whole body growth and development of the impact just mentioned above. Another important point is that the impact on the mental health of children is also very serious. This is also often overlooked. Because the child has no way to actively choose treatment. However, when we talk to children in the clinic, we often ask whether to fill the front teeth or the back teeth. Many children will say, “I want to fill the darker teeth in front first.
Why do children want to fill the dark front teeth? This is very easy to understand. Just like if we ourselves, our front incisors are black, do you need to treat them? Do you need a filling? Or if you have no teeth and your speech is leaking, right? Do you need treatment? I think you will definitely choose treatment. So it’s the same for children.
Through the above mentioned part, we can clearly see that the milk teeth are very important to our baby’s local, general health and growth and development, and if there is tooth decay, it will cause serious impact. Therefore, it is obvious that the answer to the question we just asked, if the decay of milk teeth appears, it should be treated in time. Then it is very important to prevent the caries of milk teeth at the same time. It is also a very worthy investment. It is also a very worthy investment of our time and energy.
Next, let’s learn more about the milk teeth, which milk teeth are prone to caries?
The teeth pointed by the arrow in the red border are the parts that are prone to dental caries. The most common ones, like the picture we put at the beginning, are the teeth in front of the top and the teeth behind the bottom, which are most prone to caries. Then the second part is the teeth behind the top are easy to appear caries. And this part is often invisible to us, we may not be able to see it on the top, and we don’t check it carefully. Therefore, it is necessary to go to the hospital regularly for examination. Generally speaking, the front teeth below are the least common and are the least prone to caries.
The main reason for this is that there are several reasons, the main reason is that the teeth underneath are in the localized position, which has a lot of saliva secretion and the corresponding position is cleaned. On the other hand, if the teeth underneath and in front are decayed, the caries may be very serious. Then your tooth decay may be very serious.
Which parts of the teeth are prone to tooth decay? Let’s take a look again.
For the upper teeth, the front teeth are generally the surface, the outside, the lip surface, near the lips, or the position between the teeth are prone to tooth decay. What about the big teeth inside? The main caries-prone is between two teeth. And this position usually causes food embedding, and you can’t see the hole after the embedding. Some parents may ignore that there may be a cavity there. Often, when you go to the hospital with toothache, you will find that there is only a piece of flesh stuffed there. Then it may be a big hole. So we should pay special attention to the examination when we give the baby or brush the teeth to do some detailed examination. Or take him to the hospital for regular checkups with the doctor.
Now we know a special type of children’s milk teeth caries, which is called bottle caries before, and now we are specialized in feeding caries, because some of them are caused by using bottle, and some of them are not using bottle at all, it will also form this type of caries. Like that baby at the beginning, he was breastfeeding, but he also had serious caries, he didn’t drink any formula or candy. It’s just night milk, frequent night milk, early frequent night milk causes this caries. This is related to the feeding.
This kind of tooth decay should be paid special attention in the first few months of teething, it is easy to occur. Like these slides, we know specifically which teeth are prone to caries, which parts are prone to caries, and a special bad feeding habit causes some caries. Then the special type, so different age of baby we need to focus on. Usually give the baby good oral cleaning and pay attention to check the teeth. If there is a problem found in time to treat, and regularly check and do the work of dental caries prevention. Prevention, how to prevent the caries of milk teeth? Then we need to understand the reason of tooth decay of milk teeth, why it is easy to decay of milk teeth?
When we talked about the concept of dental caries, we also mentioned that dental caries is caused by many reasons, simply speaking, it is the bacteria, using some sugar to produce some acidic substances, including of course we also eat some acidic substances, which will also play a role in destroying the teeth, so that the teeth are destroyed to form dental caries. So let’s see what are the reasons for the specific milk teeth and why it is easy to get caries? Why is it so serious.
V.
In general, there are some characteristics of four major aspects. The first is the shape of the milk tooth itself and the characteristics of its whole arrangement. Then the second point is the characteristics of its structure, that is, the milk tooth itself also accounts for two main characteristics. In addition, one is the characteristics of the child’s diet and the characteristics of our cleaning and self-cleaning action. So let’s look at them one by one.
First, the morphology of the milk teeth and the characteristics of the teeth. One of the most important characteristics of the milk teeth is that they have a large gap between the teeth. It is easy to cause food stuffing, that is, easy to plug the teeth. Then the baby has no way to clean it by himself. If parents neglect this cleaning, it will easily cause the occurrence of tooth decay. Of course, the structure of milk teeth is different from permanent teeth. Then it is also the reason why it is not easy to clean and form caries.
The second point is the characteristics of the structure of the milk teeth. We all know that the milk teeth and permanent teeth have the most surface enamel, which is the hardest main tooth. But the enamel of milk teeth is very thin, very weak, and very thin. Then it can be easily destroyed, so it is also more likely to have caries.
The third point is more subjective. Nowadays, our material living condition is very good. From the time when the baby is very young, there will be enough milk powder and milk, which contain a lot of sugar, to the various snacks and candies at the back, there are very, very many choices. Then the baby also particularly like to eat. Then these foods with very high sugar content, including drinks, and some dairy products, the so-called milk added what milk drinks and so on these dairy products added a lot of sugar, it is easy to be used by bacteria to decompose, then this is a big reason why children are prone to dental caries.
If we often eat a lot of sweets, a lot of sugar accumulates in the mouth. If we do not clean in time, such as brushing teeth, etc. In addition, the baby’s diet structure, we say that the food is more and more fine now. Many parents are also worried that babies are afraid to chew, digestion, absorption is not good, are usually eaten food made especially fine, made especially bad. Coarse grains are also eating less and less. These are also not conducive to our self-cleaning, that is, self-cleaning of the teeth and the cleaning of the sugar stored in our mouth.
In addition, it is often difficult for children to brush or floss effectively. If parents don’t guide or assist them. This is also the cause of tooth decay. In this part, we understand the causes of tooth decay of milk teeth and the causes of tooth decay easily. There are four major aspects, subjective and objective. Then we probably know why the caries will appear, how to take the treatment and how to prevent it.