Baby bottle tooth decay can have a great negative impact on the development of your child’s teeth. Avoid this damage from taking place by taking certain steps to protect your child. This is important to check for young as it can start even before the teeth have emerged.
What is it?
In children and adults alike, it has been found that sugars can be especially damaging to our teeth. When left to sit, the sticky sugars can eat away at the enamel on our teeth, causing more and more damage. When a child’s teeth are frequently exposed to sugary substances for an extended period of time, problems will begin to occur. This ranges from formula and milk to fruit drinks and sodas. In these situations, the sugars from the drink will rest around the gums and teeth of the child, causing deep problems. When going on for too long, tooth decay is inevitable.
The prevention
Prevention is critical to keep your child healthy. Don’t let the damage occur without making a change to fix it. Take these preventative steps to stop the damage before it can occur, avoiding cavities and other dental problems that will cost you more time and money down the road:
- Never allow your child to go to bed with a bottle of any liquid besides maybe water. This will allow the sweet liquids to rest next to their teeth or gums all night without any way to wash it clean. The sugars will have a huge gap of time to do their damage.
- Whether or not your child has teeth yet or not, take the steps necessary to clean their mouths in the morning and at night before bed. For those without teeth yet, this includes using a washcloth to wash around the gums.
- Make some small changes in your child’s diet. Start out by diluting the bottle with water to lessen the impact of sugar or decrease the amount of sugar that your child intakes during the day.
- As soon as your child can use a cup instead of a bottle make the switch.
Your child’s teeth that haven’t come in yet are still important and subjected to possible damage from these sugars. Baby bottle tooth decay can lead to infections and pain. Those teeth that become too far decayed may need to be extracted, leading to more problems.
Make sure that your child doesn’t suffer from baby bottle tooth decay. Parents who have young children on a bottle need to be aware of the damage it can do to their teeth just coming in. Talk with your dentist to ensure your child’s teeth are coming in healthy without experiencing damage from sugary liquids.
