Dental Problems In Children - In Your Local Palo Alto, CA Area

Space Maintainers Save Your Child's Smile

Space maintainers can save your child's smile. They are specially designed to protect space for your child's permanent teeth when baby teeth are prematurely lost because of injury or decay. If a tooth is lost too soon, your dentist may suggest a space maintainer to prevent future dental problems.

What's the Problem if Baby Teeth Come Out Too Soon?

The primary teeth or baby teeth play an important role in your child's developing mouth. They help in the normal development of the muscles and jawbones. Primary teeth serve as natural space maintainers, holding the space until the permanent teeth push them out. If baby teeth are lost too early, the other teeth can drift into the vacant space. This might cause teeth to come in crooked or unable to erupt into the gum, which leads to malocclusion, the improper positioning of the teeth and jaws. It also can cause a permanent tooth to appear prematurely, before what's best for a child's long-term dental health.

What Is a Space Maintainer?

It's a small device made of either plastic or metal and custom-fit to the child's mouth. It is a firmly fixed appliance, consisting of a band or temporary crown attached to a tooth on one side of the empty tooth socket. A wire loop or spring bridges the space to a tooth on the other side of the socket. Rarely, a dentist may make a removable space maintainer that is like a retainer or mouth guard.

How Does a Space Maintainer Help?

• Holds the empty space open, preventing movement of the other teeth, and gives the permanent tooth the needed time to take its natural position.
• May reduce or eliminate future orthodontic treatment.

What Dental Care Is Required?

Good oral hygiene is important. The space maintainer should be kept clean and teeth need to be brushed at least twice a day and flossed daily. Certain things must be avoided with a space maintainer in place -- no sticky sweets, chewing gum, or tugging on it with either fingers or the tongue.

Most children adjust within a few days to the new experience of a space maintainer. It can dramatically make a difference in a child's dental health and be worth any temporary discomfort or inconvenience.

by Brian J. Gray, DDS, MAGD, FICO

+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.

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.