How Often Should Your Child Get Routine Checkups at the Dentist?

After the first visit of your child to the pediatric dentist near me, you might have questions about your child’s next visit. Therefore it is essential to consider some factors that determine the frequency at which your child requires dental checkups. This article considers the characteristics that determine the frequency of dental visits for children. If you have kids at home, we suggest reading this blog to educate yourself on children’s dental visits.

Why Is Dental Care for Kids important?

Generally, six-monthly dental visits are sufficient for children. The visits ensure children receive regular dental care from the pediatric dentist, which includes an exam, cleaning, and x-rays, besides fluoride treatment.

If your child is healthy with no issues, it doesn’t indicate that you don’t need to take them to dentistry for kids for another 12 months. Avoiding dental appointments ensures your child doesn’t receive routine checkups for an entire year. In addition, avoiding visits to a kid’s dentistry enables dental hygiene issues to remain unchecked, leaving the child vulnerable to infections like tooth decay, micro-cavities, and inflammation.

Six monthly visits to the dentist enable the professional to determine whether your child’s brushing and flossing practices are effective, whether your child is brushing too hard or remains negligent and whether challenging to diagnose cavities are present on or between the teeth. If you receive a report that your child’s mouth is healthy, it doesn’t indicate that you need to reduce the frequency of the checkups but merely proves that the visits are beneficial to confirm that regular cleanings and fluoride treatment are functioning effectively to keep your child’s teeth healthy and free from issues.

At What Age Should a Child Start Seeing a Dentist?

Your child’s mouth may appear without teeth at birth. However, children have 22 teeth in their jaw, and the first tooth makes an appearance by age one. Therefore dental visits for children must begin no later than after their first tooth erupts or their first birthday.

Taking your child to children’s dentistry in Stockton, CA, even before the emergence of their first tooth, provides additional benefits because the children’s dentist suggests methods to clean the child’s gums and keep their mouth healthy to permit the eruption of their teeth. Therefore children visiting dentists as soon as possible proves beneficial for their dental health.

How Often Should Children Receive Dental X-Rays?

Dental x-rays are beneficial for detecting challenging to see cavities, impacted teeth, and other problems with children’s teeth that might remain invisible to the naked eye. In addition, pediatric dentists use preventive measures to ensure children are not exposed to radiation. In addition, the latest x-ray technology doesn’t require dentists to capture images of the mouth on films but allows them to notice discrepancies in the child’s mouth by placing a tiny metal plate on the child’s teeth and capturing images on a computer screen to detect every issue in the mouth. Therefore if the dentist recommends x-rays during every visit, you can accept the proposal and allow the dentist to examine your child’s mouth comprehensively.

What If Your Child Has Recurring Issues with Oral Hygiene?

While six-monthly dental visits are generally recommended to maintain good oral health, children experiencing recurring dental problems like cavities, tooth decay, or inflammation might receive suggestions from the pediatric dentist to schedule appointments every three months. As children develop their dental habits, recurring issues assume harmful proportions and become problematic at a crucial time, making it essential for them to receive proper cleanings to allow their permanent teeth to emerge in a healthy oral environment. As baby teeth are space holders for the arrival of the permanently, maintaining them properly is an essential requirement.

Preventing recurring issues in children is not challenging if you keep an eye on their diet, brushing and flossing habits, and any discomfort they might experience in your mouth. You must ensure that you avoid giving them sugary treats before bedtime and try to fortify brushing with fluoride toothpaste twice daily without forgetting to schedule six monthly visits to the experienced Stockton children’s dentistry for exams and cleanings.

If you want to keep your child’s dental health optimal SmilePro Dental in Stockton is an excellent children’s facility to help you achieve your goal. If you haven’t visited the facility with your child, we suggest contacting them immediately to arrange an appointment to benefit your child’s dental health.