4 Advantages of Using Fluoride
Being a kid should be fun and carefree. Cavities, on the other hand, do not have to play a major role in your child’s life. Fortunately, our Grandville pediatric dentists can help them avoid cavities as well as effectively treat ones already present with fluoride.
Here are 4 key advantages related to the use of fluoride for your child’s smile.
What Is Fluoride?
is a mineral found in your bones and teeth. It can also naturally be found in water, soil, plants, rocks, and air. As far as dentistry is concerned, fluoride is used to help improve the health of teeth and keep pesky cavities away. Fluoride treatments take just a few minutes and are highly effective as part of a larger oral hygiene routine.
Read More → 3 Ways to Tell If Your Child Has a Cavity
Our pediatric dentists use silver diamine fluoride as a gentle, noninvasive approach to keeping your child’s teeth in tip top shape. This quick and painless procedure not only prevents future cavities but also works to treat existing cavities. All our pediatric dentists need to do is apply the liquid fluoride directly to the surface of your child’s teeth.
Fluoride Can Help:
1. Strengthen Your Child’s Enamel
Your child isn’t likely to have thought about enamel much or considered its importance. Despite their lack of knowledge on the subject, one thing remains true: once enamel is gone, it doesn’t grow back. Weakened enamel, however, can be restored with the help of a fluoride application.
Let’s look at dental plaque for a moment. Plaque constantly forms on the teeth and after food or drinks are consumed, bacteria contained within plaque produces acids. Unfortunately, these acids like to attack the minerals in tooth enamel and cause demineralization, or loss of minerals.
Related Post → The Dangers of Baby Bottle Tooth Decay
That’s where fluoride comes in. The application of fluoride by our pediatric dentists works to remineralize your child’s tooth enamel and give it the strength it needs to fight decay, preventing new cavities from forming. It also disrupts the growth of harmful bacteria in the mouth, further protecting the teeth.
2. Prevent Cavities
Fluoride has the nickname of “nature’s cavity fighter” for a reason. After it’s been applied at our Grandville pediatric dental office, ingested through your community water supply, or introduced with toothpaste, fluoride strengthens the outer surface of teeth and makes it more resistant to acid attacks.
In addition to fluoride, you can also help your child prevent cavities with dental sealants. These thin coatings of tooth-colored resin are brushed onto the chewing surface of your child’s back molars and protect hard to reach areas from decay. Even the bristles of a toothbrush may not be able to reach inside these fine grooves and pits to properly get rid of any plaque or food particles. In other words, sealants are perfect for the job!
3. Reverse Early Tooth Decay
Severe tooth decay is never good for your child’s oral health. For instance, when the decay is past the point of even dental crowns, our pediatric dentists are left to consider more extreme solutions like tooth extraction. This can be avoided thanks to fluoride.
Fluoride’s ability to remineralize weakened enamel helps create quite the defense system for teeth. Protection like this then makes your child’s teeth less susceptible to the formation of cavities.
4. Reduce Bacteria Growth
When our pediatric dentists use silver diamine fluoride, something interesting happens. The fluoride effectively kills the harmful oral bacteria that can cause tooth decay. Moreover, the on any individual tooth can prevent those same bacteria from negatively affecting any surrounding teeth.
Less bad bacteria translates to there being less of a chance that your child will develop cavities or gum disease. Of course, we still recommend that you make sure your child is brushing their teeth at least twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and remembering to floss once daily. Regular oral hygiene paired with our professional fluoride application will surely set your child’s smile up for success.
What to Expect With a Fluoride Application
The is straightforward, typically performed during a routine visit. After a thorough teeth cleaning, one of our hygienists will apply highly concentrated fluoride to your child’s teeth either with a small brush or gloved finger.
The fluoride is left on the teeth for a few minutes to allow it to penetrate and strengthen the enamel. We ask that you keep your child from eating or drinking anything for at least 30 minutes after the treatment to maximize fluoride absorption. Moreover, hard, crunchy, or sticky foods should be avoided until instructed.
Ask Our Dentists About Fluoride
Make your child’s teeth strong and ready to fight off unwanted tooth decay with fluoride applied directly to their smile by our . Call Grandville Pediatric Dentistry at (616) 531-3430 or contact us online to request an appointment.
This blog post has been updated.