The first step to health is to prevent and treat the disease in its early stages. Every person has two series of teeth during their life: baby teeth and permanent teeth grow in the mouth from the age of 6 months to 3 years.
From the age of 6 to 12, milk teeth gradually fall out and, permanent teeth grow in their place and remain in the mouth for the rest of their lives.
Taking care of your baby’s first teeth is very important. The baby needs these teeth for proper nutrition, proper speech and growth.
Oral hygiene should begin even before a baby’s first teeth erupt. Oral hygiene from a very young age is important to prevent tooth decay; So start brushing your baby’s milk tooth very soon.
Because caring for milk teeth is important, do not brush your baby teeth if they are decayed. If tooth decay is incurable, the dentist will extract the tooth at his or her discretion.
The Importance of Baby Teeth
Keeping Your Kid’s Teeth Healthy is very important in chewing and feeding the baby as he grows up, and it is possible that not having milk teeth can cause malnutrition in the baby.
Lack of front baby teeth can make it difficult for the baby to speak. Children’s milk teeth maintain the space needed for permanent teeth to grow.
Baby milk teeth play an essential role in the formation of the jaw and mouth. Permanent tooth replacement is based on milk teeth. Jaw muscles and jawbone formation depend on milk teeth to maintain a proper distance between permanent teeth.
The roots of deciduous teeth give rise to permanent teeth. Milk teeth are essential in a baby’s smile and chewing food.
At about six months old, the first baby’s teeth grow.
The average time for baby milk teeth to erupt is between 5 and 7 months, but a baby may erupt teeth sooner, at one month, or later, at 18 months. This is normal.
There are ways to diagnose milk teeth. For example:
- baby teeth are lighter in colour
- smaller in size than permanent teeth
- deciduous teeth are shorter than permanent teeth
- the chewing surface of permanent teeth is longer and has wider roots
- the distance between teeth in permanent teeth is less than in milk teeth.
Early Loss of Milk Teeth
If your baby loses his milk teeth prematurely, take him to the dental clinic to have a device called a Space Maintainer in place of his baby milk teeth.
The Space Maintainer does not allow the lateral teeth to move into this space, and space is reserved for the permanent teeth to grow under the gums. Otherwise, the adjacent milk teeth will bend towards the dental space and prevent the permanent teeth from growing, and the baby’s permanent teeth will become irregular.
Space Maintainer (SM) is made of both fixed and movable.
When the child is five years old, explain to your baby that it is normal for a baby’s tooth to fall out. This explanation allows the child not to worry when his teeth start to fall out.
Important Tasks of Baby Milk Teeth
- An essential role in health, nutrition, and chewing
- Beauty, helping the child’s mental health and correct pronunciation of words
- Maintaining the necessary space for the growth of permanent teeth and ultimately preventing the disintegration of teeth and reducing the need for orthodontic treatment (one of the important reasons for the inclination of permanent teeth is the early loss of milk teeth)
- The decay of milk teeth causes damage to the buds of permanent teeth.
Baby Milk Teeth Care and No Bad Breath
Many children with baby milk teeth have bad breath. The reason for this is caries on milk teeth, which are ignored. When caries occur on the teeth, food accumulates in them and rots, in addition to causing inflammation and infection of the gums.
