I don’t think any of us would argue that children have it made. Wouldn’t we all like to have little to no responsibility, go to school for a few hours per day, skateboard and play? Specifically, most adults would like to visit the dentist twice per year and the appointment result in no cavities or one treated without the resulting three-hour numbness and time-consuming inconvenience.
With nutrition, dental hygiene and fluoride decay should be declining. Scarily, decay has now become epidemic in children. Insurance companies have raised examination benefits for children for the first time since their inception in the 1960s in an attempt to decrease their financial outlay by catching decay earlier. The ability to diagnose decay earlier and conserve more tooth structure is paramount in getting our children’s teeth to last to the expected 90-year survival rate.
Effective diagnosis can result in the loss of approximately 400 microns of tooth structure instead of the 20 millimeters that we adults lost per cavity. We have special decay highlighting dyes that turns decay bright pink, and we can remove even deep decay without anesthetic using a microabrassion handpiece that is the equivalent of a sandblaster. In this manner we maintain the healthy tooth structure, remove the decay, and all the patient feels is a mild sensation of cool air. We then sterilize the tooth, flow in a tooth-colored composite filling, cure it with a laser, and the child (and some adults) are off and running! An easy, fear-free dental appointment.
The best part is that we are saving our children from a tremendous amount of dental treatment in adulthood that results from placement of large aggressive fillings. And don’t feel slighted; we can use microabrassion on adults with virgin teeth or composite fillings.
For more information, please call 661-255-2545.