What is Dental Caries?
It is a dental infection, of bacteria origin, that results in the demineralization and destruction of the dental hard tissue
What is Early Childhood Caries?
Presence of dental caries on one or more surfaces in the primary tooth of children below 6 years old.
Why does my child have caries?
Dental caries is a multifactorial disease.
Common causes are:
- 1. Drinking milk from a milk bottle to sleep
- 2. On demand breastfeeding throughout the night
- 3. Frequent intake of sweet drinks and food in between meals
- 4. Poor brushing habits
- 5. Food pouching (prolonged holding of food in the mouth before swallowing)
What happens if dental caries are not treated?
Children might experience pain, swelling and infection from the dental caries.
Do we have to treat the decay? Aren’t the baby teeth going to drop soon?
Tooth decay left unattended can lead to severe pain and infection. Moreover, the teeth are paramount for good nutrition and proper speech development.
Baby teeth also act as important guides for the permanent teeth to erupt in the right sequence and position. Lastly, infection in baby teeth can result in mal-formed adult teeth later.
