Dental caries is a pretty common condition plaguing American children. If a dental cavity develops in your child's baby teeth, is it something to worry about? Treating dental caries even in baby teeth is important if you want your kids to have a healthy mouth. Your Flower Mound, TX, family dentist, Dr. Lauri Barge, is committed to ensuring that not even dental caries will destroy your child's smile.
Why You Should Treat Children's Cavities
Baby teeth don't last forever and will be replaced by permanent teeth soon enough. However, that doesn't make allowing tooth decay to fester a good idea. Baby teeth decay can affect the developing permanent teeth below. Untreated tooth decay can cause your child's baby teeth to fall out too soon. Your child's remaining teeth can begin shifting to fill out the gap the lost tooth leaves behind.
When it's time for your child's permanent teeth to grow out, they might not have enough room. Hence, your child's permanent teeth become misaligned as they grow out. Untreated baby teeth caries can result in damaged, stained, or malformed permanent teeth. That's because the infection can spread deep into your child's gums to the developing permanent teeth. That means your child could end up losing their permanent teeth before they have a chance to complete development.
Other complications of untreated cavities in children include painful gum abscesses, delayed permanent teeth development, and reinforcement of bad oral habits. Treating your child's cavities saves them from having to experience the pain of these complications and helps them build excellent oral hygiene habits that will last them a lifetime.
Treatment for Children's Cavities
Treating your child's cavities at your Flower Mound, TX, family dentist's office will save them from future oral health complications. During your appointment, your dentist will assess the degree of tooth damage, remove the decayed portion, and restore the tooth. Depending on the extent of damage your dentist may use a tooth-colored filling or restorations such as onlays, inlays, or dental crowns.
Call your Flower Mound, TX, family dentist, Dr. Barge, at (972) 539-3800 to schedule a consultation for assessment and treatment of cavities in your child's teeth.