Do infants, toddlers and children even need dental care? 

YES!!! Children need dental care too! The days of "eh, they'll just fall out eventually" are long gone. 

Question : What is the most common disease among children? We'll give you two hints - 1) It's not holding their breath in the middle of a store until you buy them that shiny new toy. 2) You are on a dental website...  

Answer : Yes, tooth decay is the most common preventable chronic disease among children age 6-19 (According to the CDC).  The key takeaway word from that sentence is preventable. Your child’s first teeth are extremely important - just as their adult teeth will be. Primary teeth for children serve more than just the function of chewing and digestion, they aid in proper growth by holding space for adult teeth that are essential for speech, facial and dental development. 

Untreated decay in children can cause painful infections that may lead to difficulty eating, sleeping and socializing. For parents, this means more expensive treatments. There have even been studies done showing that annually over 50 million hours of school are lost due to dental related illnesses, children with dental pain were more likely to have a lower GPA and at an increased risk for dental problems as adults. 

When should my child visit the dentist?

The current recommendation from American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) is that a child should have their first dental visit by age 1, or within 6 months of their first teeth appearing. Infants and toddlers should be seen by a dentist to learn about oral health - it is more than just a checkup (for both of you). Besides maintaining a strong, healthy mouth, one of the huge benefits we see for our children as a result of early office visits is a decrease in dental phobia by hopefully having a fun and pleasurable experience at the dentist. For the parents, we see an increase in dental awareness and education about their child's oral health care needs and as a result are able to provide better dental supervision.
Besides, who doesn't want to see an adorable smile staring back at them?

At Old Hook Dental, we believe preventative care should begin early; we aim to keep every visit fun and educational for our younger patients while offering the same quality and conservative care as we do for our adult patients. We encourage you to bring your youngster with you to an appointment of your own - they get to see the office and super cool gadgets we use, meet the staff and most importantly, we get an opportunity to show them there is nothing to fear by seeing mom or dad getting their own care. 

For our young patients we provide early intervention by applying fluoride treatments to help remineralize teeth, sealants to prevent cavities, cleanings, exams and traditional intervention when necessary (same as adults) to keep your youngsters teeth cavity free and healthy throughout their life. We can also fabricate sports guards for our athletic patients to help protect from traumatic injury.

Don't forget to introduce brushing at an early age!!