7 Ways Newport Beach Residents Can Prevent Their Child from

Needing New Teeth, PART 1

This four-part article series explains the seven important steps you need to do as a parent to help your child achieve and maintain excellent oral health for life.

As a parent, the health of your child is perhaps your greatest priority. You want them to grow up well: to eat properly,

exercise regularly and get as good a start to life as possible. What you may not have realized is that the health of your

child’s teeth is as important as the health of the rest of their bodies.

Unlike a broken bone or fighting off a cold, poor oral health can cause serious consequences for the health of your child’s

heart, kidneys, lungs and even brain! These effects may only manifest later on in life, but they are potentially fatal. This

isn’t even to mention the obvious consequences of poor dental health for youngsters: the need for new teeth in Newport

Beach.

In order to guide you as a parent, we have put together this four-part article series in which we present to you the 7

different ways you can help to promote the dental health of your child, starting with an appointment with the dentist at

as early as the age of 1 year!

Prevent the Need for New Teeth Implants, Step # 1: Start as Soon as Possible

Dental care doesn’t begin when your child develops all of his or her milk teeth; it starts as soon as the very first milk tooth

emerges and even before. It is recommended by both the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the American

Academy of Pediatrics that you take your baby for his or her first appointment with the dentist by the age of one year.

Thereafter, you should take your child to the dentist twice per year for routine check-ups and fluoride treatments. You

should then typically take your child for his or her first orthodontic appointment at the age of around 7.

This kind of preventative care is essential for the development of good oral health, hygiene and bite function that will

continue on into their early adulthood. It’s also the most cost effective method of keeping your child’s teeth healthy,

because it avoids the need for expensive restorative treatment and even teeth replacement later on in life.

Case in Point: In a report compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, parents who took their child in to

see the dentist regularly from the age of one year spent 40% less on dental healthcare than those who didn’t.

Additional Benefits of Early Dental Care

Taking your child in for routine dental care from as early an age as one

helps them to become accustomed to being seen to by the dentist. It

therefore becomes a normal part of their childhood and nothing to be feared

or avoided. Being comfortable with the dentist and oral hygienist as a child

will eliminate the risk of them avoiding professional treatment later on in

life out of a fear for what it might entail.

Stay Tuned for Part 2

To find out more about how Newport Beach residents can help their child

achieve and maintain optimal lifelong oral health, stay tuned for the

second installment of this four-part article series.