Drink More Water in 2019

Drinking water is important for your health at all ages and is something simple families can pledge to do together in the New Year.  Kidz Connextion dentists know that plenty of adult patients are guilty of not drinking enough water, so it can be tough to monitor if kids are getting enough too.  We want to encourage you and the kids in your family to stay hydrated and healthy, and drinking more water is a simple resolution that has more benefits for your teeth than you realize!

We all know kids love drinking juice and soda, but we forget that these beverages leave unwanted sugar behind on the teeth.  The type of bacteria that causes cavities feeds on sugar, and produces acid that wears away enamel. Enamel is not replaceable, so it’s important to take care of it even from a young age.  When kids drink juice or soda, it is helpful just to drink some water afterwards to dilute acids and wash away food particles and residue. You and your children should be drinking at least eight 8oz glasses of water each day.  Drinking tap water with fluoride is important to help prevent cavities.  If you want to keep your mouths and bodies healthy, come see us to discuss tips that can help your whole family drink more water in 2019!

Kidz Connextion Dental Care maintains offices around Phoenix.  To find out more, visit our website at Kidzconnextion.com.

Have You Had a Cleaning This Year?

Dentists at Kidz Connextion encourage all our patients to maintain a great oral health routine at home, but it is still important to come into the office for regular professional cleanings.  During the holidays, we want everyone looking forward to the New Year and maintaining great oral hygiene!  However much you brush and floss, some harmful bacteria grow in your mouth that cause gum disease and can only be removed by a dental professional. 

It’s important to see a professional regularly not just to clean your teeth, but also to locate and monitor areas in the mouth that may need special attention, and a dentist can tell you if you may be missing a spot or skipping an important step in your regular oral care routine.  During a teeth cleaning, a hygienist thoroughly clean the area above and below the gum line with scaling tools to rid them of plaque and tartar. After the surfaces of the teeth are cleaned, the hygienist flosses between every one of your teeth and may apply fluoride if recommended by the dentist. Come see us for a cleaning to make a great impression during the holidays, and start the year off with your best smile!

To learn more about dental health and all the services provided at the practice, visit our website at Kidzconnextion.com.

Bite Checks

One of the most important parts of children’s bi-annual appointments is a bite check. At the Kidz Connextion Dental and Braces offices in Phoenix, we’re expanding the services we offer so that we can provide better treatment of patients in a setting they’re already comfortable with. The bite check lets us know whether a child might need orthodontic care or dental extractions and helps us to identify the cause of any discomfort they may be experiencing.

Children’s jaws are softer than those of adults, and the upper jaw does not fully fuse together until puberty. The wisdom teeth often do not erupt until near the end of adolescence. For this reason, children have a lot of misalignment issues that can be corrected much more easily than in adults. Misalignments may be due to the teeth being slightly tilted, twisted, or otherwise out of place, or it could be due to misshapen or mismatched jaw bones.

The digital x-ray machines in our offices allow us to closely monitor jaw and tooth placement without subjecting children to dangerous radiation or requiring them to hold film in their mouths. We’ll also examine their teeth at each appointment for unusual patterns of wear and make sure children are able to close their jaws together. It is usually possible by the time a child’s permanent molars start coming in around the age of seven to do an orthodontic assessment.

Kidz Connextion Dental and Braces maintains offices around Phoenix. To find out more, visit our website at Kidz Connextion.

 

Retained Baby Teeth

Losing baby teeth is usually an exciting milestone for children, but sometimes, teeth don’t fall out when they should. There are several reasons why baby teeth might stay past their time, but at Kidz Connextion Dental and Braces, we’ll figure out what’s going on and make a treatment plan.

As adult teeth erupt, they dissolve the roots of the baby teeth ahead of them. If all goes well, the baby teeth will fall out shortly before adult teeth move in to take their place. When the baby teeth remain in position, we call them “retained deciduous teeth.” This often happens when the adult teeth come in at an angle or in a different position from the baby teeth, leaving the child with two sets of the same teeth. This most commonly affects the lower incisors. In these cases, we would recommend extracting the baby teeth because it will be impossible to effectively brush them and they could cause bite problems.

Another common reason for baby teeth to remain in place is that there is no adult tooth coming in to push it out. This can happen for genetic reasons and is more common in girls. It would require more extensive treatments to correct, but it probably doesn’t mean the child’s health is in danger. Baby teeth might also have to be extracted if their roots are fused to the jaw bone and show no signs of weakening. But we don’t want to extract baby teeth when there is still a possibility a permanent tooth will push it out naturally, which is why it’s important for us to be able to do regular assessments.

Kidz Connextion Dental & Braces maintains offices around Phoenix. To find out more, visit our website at Kidz Connextion.

 

Diabetes and Gum Disease

If it’s November it’s National Diabetes Awareness Month. This event is particularly important to dentists such as us at Kidz Connextion in Phoenix, because diabetes affects oral health in several ways. Diabetes can occur in children, so they and their parents need to know what additional challenges they may face.

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that makes it difficult for people to process sugar. It has implications for the entire body, including inflammation and a weakened immune system. As a result, people with diabetes are particularly vulnerable to gum infections. They have periodontal disease at higher rates than the general population and are likelier to suffer from bleeding gums.

It is unclear whether children with diabetes are at increased risk for tooth decay, but their gums do become more inflamed when new teeth are erupting. Some research indicates that their teeth also erupt faster. People with high blood sugar also tend to have dry mouth more often, which is uncomfortable and deprives the body of saliva, another important defense against gum disease. It is especially important for children with diabetes to practice good oral hygiene and to have their teeth cleaned regularly. Chewing sugar-free gum is one way for them to stimulate more saliva production, and avoiding sugary drinks such as soda and juice will make them less vulnerable to dry mouth.

Kidz Connextion Dental Care maintains offices around Phoenix. To find out more, visit our website at Kidz Connextion.

 

Space Maintainers

Your child may need a space maintainer if he or she loses a baby tooth prematurely before the permanent tooth is ready to erupt. If a primary tooth is lost too early, adult teeth can erupt into the empty space instead of where they should be. When more adult teeth are ready to fill the mouth, there may not be enough room for them because of the lost space. To prevent this from happening, our doctors at Kidz Connextion will recommend a space maintainer to hold open the space left by the missing tooth.

The goal of space maintainers is to prevent movement of adjacent permanent “first molars” (also called six-year molars), and loss of space for (permanent) bicuspids and permanent canines. If the permanent first molars are not held in their proper position, they can drift forward and prevent the bicuspid teeth from being able to move into the mouth on a normal path. Baby teeth are important to the development of the teeth, jaw bones and muscles to help guide permanent teeth into position when the baby teeth are lost. If space is not maintained, then teeth can shift into the open space and orthodontic treatment may be required.

If you are searching for a pediatric dentist, look no further and give us a call. To learn more about our pediatric services here at the office visit www.kidzconnextion.com for more information. To schedule an appointment in Phoenix AZ, call 623-223-1001.

Benefits of Digital X-rays

The diversity in digital equipment available to dentists these days has increased remarkably. Digital equipment in the dentist’s office means quicker and more informative consultations with patients than past years. Digital X-rays, Intra-Oral camera, and Panorex X-rays are only some pieces of high-tech dental appliances that Dr. John Graneto of utilizes here at Kidz Connextion. This type of technology allows us to provide quality care to the patient for a more enhanced, effective and comfortable experience.

Within these imaging programs, there are a number of tools that will allow our doctor to take a very close look at the teeth and surrounding structures with amazing accuracy. The image taken of a tooth, for example, can be enhanced and enlarged many times its actual size on the computer screen, making it easier for our doctor to show you where and what the problem is. In addition, the technique also uses less radiation than the typical X-ray (about 80% less) and there is no wait time for the X-rays to develop – the images are available on a screen a few seconds after being taken.

If you are searching for a pediatric dentist, look no further and give us a call. To learn more about our pediatric services here at the office visit www.kidzconnextion.com for more information. To schedule an appointment in Phoenix AZ, call 623-223-1001.