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Children’s Dentistry

Your child’s smile is precious and caring for it requires as much dental attention as yours. The AAPD, American Association of Pediatric Dentistry, recommends you begin scheduling routine children’s dental appointments for your kids within six months of the eruption of the first tooth and no later than 12 months of age.

We suggest you bring your children with you to your dental visits. From an early age, we can begin creating positive associations with dental visits—associations that will carry into their adult years and shape the future of their dental care.

Dr. Dixson and our caring, gentle team love working with kids and do our best to make dental care a fun learning experience. As a part of our general family dentistry, we offer children’s dentistry to check for proper teeth development, introduce good brushing techniques and hygiene routines, as well as help prevent cavities and decay. We not only examine their oral health and help them prevent cavities, but we will also teach your children the importance of caring for their teeth on a daily basis.

Dental Sealants:

Tooth decay is most commonly found on molars (permanent teeth in the back of the mouth). On the surface, molars have deep pits and grooves. It is here that food particles and bacteria often collect and form cavities….

Even frequent brushing can’t remove all of the bacteria build up.

What are Sealants?
Sealants are made from a material that bonds to molar surfaces, in order to smooth out the pits and grooves. This flatter surface on the tooth helps regular brushing clean more effectively. What a comfort to know that your brushing efforts are cleaning more than ever before!

Simple and Painless
The application of sealants is a routine procedure. The teeth are thoroughly cleaned before the sealant is simply brushed on. A light is then used to help the sealant harden. No drilling or anesthetic are required, making it a viable solution for even the most nervous patient.

Toothprints:

Toothprints® was developed by a pediatric dentist who began using dental bite impressions as a way of safeguarding his own child, and other young patients. The thermoplastic wafer records the size and shape of a child’s teeth, the tooth position within the arch, and the relationship between upper and lower jaws.

Like fingerprints, dental imprints are unique to every person, so bite impressions serve an accurate method of identification–not even identical twins have the same bite characteristics. A Toothprints® impression also captures saliva, which is a powerful source of human scent, thus making the wafer effective for scent-dog tracking. The saliva also provides a DNA sample.

The dentist softens the patented thermoplastic wafer in a water bath, and instructs the child to bite down. It’s that simple. Parents keep the Toothprints® disc at home in a reclosable bag (provided), for confidentiality and quick access.

Sport’s Dentistry:

Protect Your Child from Sports Injuries with a Custom Athletic Mouthguard.

Of all the injuries that occur to the face during sports activities, dental injuries are the most common, with those participating in sports having a 33-56% chance of sustaining an orofacial injury over the course of their time in sports. But these dental injuries are preventable! Not wearing an athletic mouthguard increases the risk of dental injury 60 times, which means that having your child wear a custom athletic mouthguard whenever he or she is participating in sports (whether at practice or during a game) can greatly reduce risk of injury. The American Dental Association recommends the use of custom athletic mouthguards during all of the following sports (just to name a few):

  • Football
  • Basketball
  • Hockey
  • Boxing
  • Soccer
  • Gymnastics
  • Skateboarding
  • Martial Arts
  • Bicycling
  • Volleyball

Custom Athletic Mouthguards Prevent More Than You Think

Sure, custom athletic mouthguards can help prevent tooth loss during a game. But did you know that they can also help prevent more serious injuries as well? Custom athletic mouthguards can help prevent your child or teen from sustaining a concussion, a broken jaw, neck injuries, and a cerebral hemorrhage. Should your child or teen be hit hard, a custom athletic mouthguard can prevent him or her from being knocked unconscious. These intraoral appliances also help prevent cuts and bruising.

Three Types of Athletic Mouthguards

There are three types of athletic mouthguard: stock, boil and bite, and custom. Both the stock and boil and bite mouthguards can usually be found at a sporting goods store, and these two offer the least amount of protection. A stock mouthguard is a one-size-fits-all mouthguard that requires constant biting to hold in place. A boil and bite mouthguard may seem like a custom option — the mouthguard is heated and then molded to the teeth through the act of biting down on the plastic — but because they’re “customized” at home, they’re often improperly modified. They also do not cover all of the teeth.

The third type of mouthguard is the custom athletic mouthguard provided by your child’s dentist. We can create a truly custom athletic mouthguard for your child or teen, meaning that the mouthguard fits his or her teeth perfectly for greater comfort and better protection. A custom athletic mouthguard will stay firmly in place, making it easier to speak and breathe while wearing the appliance and preventing injuries that could occur if the appliance moves.

Want to learn more about the importance of custom athletic mouthguards for protecting your child or teen from serious sports injuries? Contact us to discuss your options.