How Often Should a Child Get Fluoride Treatment?
If you want to keep your child’s teeth strong and healthy, early intervention with fluoride treatment can assist you in achieving your goal. The CDC and the ADA have approved fluoride therapy for children as safe and effective to provide many benefits for your child and prevent discomfort later.
If you want to learn about the dental health benefits of fluoride treatments, when your child should begin receiving them, and the safety measures you must put in place to protect your child from the adverse effects of fluoride, kindly continue reading this article for more information.
Fluoride Therapy Explained
Fluoride therapy is a dental procedure using a natural mineral that helps strengthen tooth enamel to build strong teeth and protect against cavities in adults and children. When receiving a fluoride treatment in Roanoke, VA, the dentist paints fluoride varnish on children’s teeth. The fluoride used during the treatment is similar to the fluoride in toothpaste but has higher doses to provide instant benefits.
Dentists recommend fluoride treatments to benefit most from the therapy even after receiving teeth whitening procedures to ensure your tooth enamel absorbs the fluoride. The treatments are most effective if received three to four times yearly.
Why Is Fluoride Important?
Fluoride Is a natural mineral offering many dental health benefits that help strengthen and protect children’s and adults’ teeth. Fluoride treatment is important because it helps build strong teeth, supports and protects healthy tooth enamel, prevents bacteria from attacking your teeth and gums, restores lost minerals like calcium and phosphorus to your teeth, and prevents or reduces the occurrence of cavities and their severity. Fluoride can also delay or decrease the need for expensive dental treatments later.
How Does Fluoride Work?
Fluoride is an essential mineral that helps prevent tooth decay by strengthening children’s tooth enamel, making them more resistant to acid attacks from mouth bacteria. Fluoride can also reverse early tooth decay.
Fluoride treatments from dentist 24018 make children’s teeth more resistant to dental plaque and acids and have been used for over seven decades as a preventive measure against cavities. Children receive fluoride treatments because their teeth are more vulnerable. However, adults can also benefit from the therapy.
If children use fluoride toothpaste, it helps generate a healthier smile over time. With proper brushing techniques and fluoride toothpaste, children’s teeth, gums, and oral hygiene improve with brushing. However, children also need routine exams and cleanings to ensure optimal oral hygiene.
The Safety of Fluoride Therapy for Children
The safety of fluoride treatments for children remains undisputed. Children are recommended fluoride treatments by the American Academy of pediatrics soon after the eruption of their first tooth at around a year. Most children must receive Roanoke professional fluoride treatment every three or six months depending on their risk of developing cavities later.
Children can receive fluoride therapy at their dentist’s or pediatrician’s office. The dentist completes the treatment in a few minutes by brushing the varnish on their teeth because it hardens on contact with mouth saliva instantly. Although your child feels the fluoride with their tongue, they find it challenging to lick. The fluoride application is not painful, although the pediatric dentist requests you hold younger children in your lap during the process and ensure they don’t move around.
After receiving fluoride therapy, your child can begin drinking cold or warm liquids, but you must refrain from giving them hot beverages. The dentist suggests brushing children’s teeth after six hours of receiving fluoride therapy to ensure their teeth fully absorb the fluoride.
What If Your Child Swallows Fluoride?
When receiving fluoride treatment from the dentist, your child is unlikely to swallow it because it hardens instantly. However, when brushing their teeth at home with fluoride toothpaste, ensure that you follow these recommendations to reduce overexposure of your child to fluoride.
Supervise children whenever they are brushing with fluoride toothpaste, encouraging them to spit most of the toothpaste if possible.
Do not provide children under three toothpaste bigger than a rice grain. Children over three can receive a pea-sized grain of toothpaste on their toothbrush.
Refrain children under six from using mouthwash or other fluoride rinses because they are comfortable swallowing.
It is natural for children to express anxiety during dental visits. Therefore you will find it easier to manage them when getting fluoride treatments from Kids First Dental — Roanoke, with experience managing young children efficiently. Consult the practice today to give your child the benefit of fluoride therapy to strengthen their teeth and give them a healthier smile.