Mum : What About my Coke and Chocolates?
It is rather evident that the eating culture has changed. Fast food has become very popular with all ages specially children. The child watching television for long hours is easily influenced by the commercials that sell the products. Wrong food habits affect the formation of teeth. Skipping meals and instead snacking on foods with little nutrient, refined foods, fried and sweets are often a typical diet. The body requires strong gums and teeth that these foods fail to supply. Do not go in the beginning for the colour of the teeth.
A very common notion is that white sparkling teeth are healthy. The colour of the teeth like the colour of the skin can not be changed. This is to say that if the teeth of the parents are healthy, the teeth of children will be good. Improper formation of teeth begin right from the time the child is growing in the womb. If mother has serious illness or deficiency of vitamins then the child is deprived and the teeth may be poorly formed.
Chocolates are often singled out and blacklisted with respect to cavity formation. However all sweets, fruits, juice, drinks and carbohydrates containing foods such as rice can be the food for the cavity forming bacteria. As parents, we all love our children and wish them to be happy and successful in their lives. However, the development of mentally healthy, well adjusted and happy individual requires much more than mere good wishes. The events of the first five years in the life of the child is important and impressionable and are crucial in his development.
At birth a child is totally dependent on others to satisfy his needs. How a child is handled by his parents, specially his mother will determine the development of the child.
Freud, a famous psychologist has called the first eighteen months of the child’s life as the ORAL STAGE. This is a period where the need for satisfaction and gratification are centred around mouth. The satisfaction of hunger and sensation of sucking and the exploratory behaviours of finding out about things by putting them to the mouth are all included in oral stage.
Thumb Sucking
It is one of the habits that is most frequently practised by children and is capable of producing damaging effects on the teeth. The presence of this habit upto 2 to 3 years of age is considered quite normal. Persistence of this habit beyond 3-4 years of age can have a damaging influence on the dento-alveolar structures and should hence be intercepted. Thumb sucking habit is intercepted by using removable or fixed habit breakers.
Lip Biting
Your lips feel dry, so you lick them and your tongue discovers a bit of loose skin. You try to feel it usually with your front teeth. Unfortunately, you end up taking along several layers of skin. Thus lip is cut irregularly and it easily forms another flap of skin. It is a vicious circle.
Treatment : Emolline lip balm is useful applying at bed time. This is because we can lick our lips in our sleep.
Mouth Breathing Habit
Mouth breathing habit has a profound effect on the dentofacial region. It can be obstructive or habitual in nature. Obstructive mouth breathing is usually a result of nasal obstruction such as nasal polyps, nasal tumours, chronic nasal inflammatory conditions and deviated nasal septum. Habitual mouth breathing is one where oral breathing persists as habit after the removal of the nasal obstruction.
Mouth breathing affects the orofacial equilibrium due to lowered mandibular and tongue posture and can therefore produce severe malocclusion. Interceptive procedures should involve identification and removal of the cause. Persistence of habitual oral breathing is an indication to use a vestibular screen to intercept the habit.
Tongue Thrust Habit
Tongue thrust is defined as a condition in which the tongue makes contact with any teeth anterior to the molars during swallowing. This is a deleterious habit that can lead to dental problems viz. open bite & anterior proclination.
Tongue thrust habit should be intercepted by using habit breakers. The patient should be trained and educated on the correct technique of swallowing.
But the best way is to educate yourself in dental matters so that you can be an active participant in your child’s tooth care. As such there is no proof that the dental diseases are hereditary, it is the bad habits that are responsible for bad teeth.
Mouth Protectors
If your child is active and plays different games there is a chance that his teeth may get injury, infection, tooth loss, damage to tooth root, gums & mouth. Even damage to milk teeth should be treated with caution. A mouth protector may be useful. It is used in boxing.
Do you need braces?
• Look in the mirror…are your teeth straight or crowded or forward?
• Lips are normally aligned and teeth are not seen.
Treatment of Crowded Teeth
• The appliances are either removable or fixed metal bands.
• If the forward teeth are prominent, the space has to be created for the upper teeth to go backward. The bisuspids or premolars have to be sacrificed to create spacing. This space is closed after the treatment.
• The time is approximately one to two years.