Chipped Baby Teeth - In Your Local Palo Alto, CA Area

Children's Speech Problems

What did you say?

We've all heard young children speak "baby talk." Sometimes it can sound endearing — it may be a speech defect.

In early infancy, babies begin to make vowel sounds, usually mastered by age three, when they are finished teething. Consonant sounds are more difficult and come a little later on. By the eighth birthday, most children can pronounce all consonants and are 100% intelligible. But some children have more difficulty with speech and may need help learning.

• Lisping — The most common speech defect is lisping, which is relatively easy to correct. Children who lisp cannot produce "s," "z," "sh," "ch," and "j" sounds. A lisp is heard when children cut off an "s" with the tongue instead of the front teeth. Prolonged thumb sucking or finger sucking can create an open bite and result in a lisp. Other causes are the loss of a primary tooth, impaired hearing, undeveloped ability to discriminate sounds, imitation of a relative or friend who lisps, or neurological disturbances.
• Cleft palate — A cleft palate can dramatically affect a child's speech, and often requires oral surgery. Sometimes an orthodontist provides a plastic plate to cover the opening in the roof of the mouth — this allows the child to develop normal speech patterns until surgery can correct the palate.
• Tongue thrusting — Tongue thrusting is another problem that can impair speech. This is essentially "reverse swallowing," and can cause improper tooth alignment. It may result from prolonged thumb sucking, which leaves a gap between the teeth and fosters the habit.

Your pediatric dentist may notice a speech problem first. The dentist often works with a team, including a speech pathologist, orthodontist and oral surgeon, to correct the speech problem. Your family dentist can let you know if they think anything is amiss with your child's developing speech patterns.

+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.

Child Dental Health and Baby Teeth Care

Your family dentist is treating the babies of Baby Boomers now, lots and lots of them! But the new generation can expect entirely different child dental health experiences than Mom and Dad remember. Fluorides and sealants have virtually eliminated the rampant tooth decay problems of the early '50s. For Baby Boomer's Babies, cavity prevention should be, well, a piece of cake.

Teething: Baby teeth do grown-up duty

Primary teeth work hard. Those 20 teeth pave the way for permanent teeth. If they're lost prematurely, replacement teeth can crop up in unexpected, and unhealthy, places. Keep every tooth you can in that young noggin.

Boys being boys

Boys, young and old, have written the book on knocked-out teeth. If it's not a skateboard accident, it's falling off fences. But since girls are participating in sports more frequently now, statistics are expected to equalize. Good argument for a mouth guard.

Glad to meet you, Doc

That all-important first visit to the pedodontist (pediatric dentist) should come early on. The family dentist needs a little time to gain trust, so he or she would rather see a child at a young age, before he or she needs to see a drill because of cavities.

What can a parent do when the baby's brand new?

Get your child used to the feeling of clean teeth. Child dental care should begin in babyhood before teething begins by gently rubbing the teeth and gums with a pad of gauze after every feeding. This is when positive dental health attitudes begin. And never put your baby to bed with a bottle full of milk. Cavities can develop even before a child's teeth have erupted from what is known as baby bottle tooth decay.

The Tooth Fairy, bull or bear market?

What's the going rate for a lost baby tooth? In an informal survey, the highest reward for a tooth under the pillow was $5.00, reflecting a very good year for the child! More commonly, the payment ranges from 25¢ to a dollar. A youngster who banks all his money from the tooth fairy can put away $5-$20 for a rainy day.

Hey, Dude, rad braces!

Who ever thought braces could be a fashion statement? Check it out: retainers now come in neon and glow-in-the-dark colors, and elastics can be had in Monster Purple and Slime Green. Allllriiiiiight.

Barnyard pediatric dentistry

Lucky for us it's the 21st century. Dental folklore in the mid-1800's proposed this treatment for growing youngsters: "To make the teeth of children grow hastily, take the brain of a hen and rub the gums therewith." If nothing else, there was fried chicken for Sunday dinner, anyway.

Different strokes

A study of tooth brushing techniques in groups of children aged 7 through 11 shows definite styles of brushing, according to age. Younger children use long, exuberant, not-too-effective strokes (parents must help!) and fewer of them; older kids use more pressure and more frequent, shorter strokes. Just remember what every pediatric dentist will tell you: the key to good child dental health is practice, practice, practice.

+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.