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A pacifier or thumb/finger-sucking habit that lasts beyond the toddler years can have a negative impact on a child’s teeth and jaws. A Healthy Self-Soothing Habit In infancy and toddlerhood, these are perfectly healthy self-soothing habits. They help the child feel happy and safe when encountering a new or stressful experience (which happens frequently, as […]

It’s not actually true that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. Smiling takes at least ten muscles while frowning requires as few as six. We think the saying should be changed to “smile to burn more calories!” And that isn’t the only health benefit of smiling. Smiling Releases Endorphins We obviously smile

A couple of the biggest rites of passage in childhood are the first baby teeth coming in and the first adult teeth coming in. We’re here to give parents a brief guide on the general timeline to follow. The Baby Teeth Schedule Baby teeth tend to arrive in pairs, alternating between the lower and upper

“Swimmer’s calculus” sounds more like advanced mathematics than anything to do with teeth. It’s actually the term for yellow or brown stains a swimmer can develop on their teeth after prolonged exposure to acidic chlorine ions in pool water. Tooth enamel is so vulnerable to acid that even mildly acidic pool water can increase the

Parents can do a lot to help their child come into the dentist’s office feeling relaxed and positive. (We’ll take things from there.) 1. Start early. As soon as a child has teeth, they can benefit from dental care, and the earlier they see the dentist, the easier it is to build a trusting relationship.

There won’t be a pop-quiz later, but we still want our patients to be familiar with the anatomy of their teeth. We’ll be starting with the crown and going down to the roots. Everything visible above the gums is the crown, which has three layers. Tooth Enamel On the outside is the enamel, the hardest

Some of us remember the soreness and discomfort of our incoming adult molars, not to mention how hard it was to chew. It’s the same for teething toddlers, but there’s a lot parents can do to help them through this phase. Teething Symptoms Beginning around six months, babies might start showing symptoms like excessive drooling,

We hear a lot that it’s bad to chew ice. It’s because ice can do a lot of damage to our teeth and gums. Extreme Temperature Changes Versus Enamel Tooth enamel might be the strongest substance in the body, but it’s also brittle. The issue with ice isn’t just that it’s hard, it’s also that

Childhood is a time of scraped knees and bumps and bruises as kids run around discovering the world. As pediatric dentists, we want to help parents minimize the risk of their kids getting preventable tooth injuries while they’re enjoying what childhood has to offer. The Main Tooth Injury Risks For babies and toddlers, the majority

Staying informed about the symptoms and risk factors of oral cancer is incredibly important. We oral health professionals are on the front lines of the battle against oral cancer, and we want to recruit our patients to fight with us. Oral Cancer Risk Factors By far the biggest risk factor is tobacco use. Another is