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It’s completely natural to feed your infant with a bottle in the early stages of development. While bottles are easy to use and comforting for babies, they are also one of the leading causes of tooth decay in children.

The good news is, you don’t have to stop using baby bottles altogether to avoid the risk of tooth decay. Instead, take these preventative measures to ensure that your child will have healthy oral development in the earliest stages of childhood.

The cause of baby bottle tooth decay, or “nursing bottle mouth” is due to frequent exposure to sugary liquids for long periods of time, which forms harmful plaque in the mouth. It makes sense; babies and toddlers are often seen running around with bottles of milk, formula and juice and hate to part ways with their beloved bottle at the end of the day.

Remember: baby bottles are not pacifiers. Some parents allow their infants to carry a bottle around just to satisfy their need for an object to chew on. However, this opens the door for longer periods of exposure to sugar. Try to switch out the bottle for a pacifier after mealtime.

Avoid sending your child to bed with his bottle. It’s easy to get into the habit of putting your baby to sleep with a warm bottle of milk, but it will result in serious consequences. Not only does it increase the amount of exposure to sugary liquids, but it will also allow bacteria to form plaque in the mouth overnight. Your child’s oral environment should have plenty of time to recover from a day’s worth of exposure to sugar. When you send your child to bed with a bottle, you’re essentially undoing all nighttime teeth cleaning rituals that you just completed.

Water is good for your baby and his oral development. If your child is attached to his bottle, it would helpful to occasionally replace a bottle full of milk with water instead. It rinses bacteria from the mouth and doesn’t contain sugar that will cause plaque formation. This will also work if you must send your baby to bed with a bottle.

Try to teach your child to drink from a cup around 6 months of age. This will help break the habit of keeping the bottle in his mouth for prolonged periods of time. Encourage your child to stop using a bottle completely by 12-14 months. It may seem like a difficult task at first, but it is worth it to keep you baby’s oral development on a healthy track!

It’s time for pumpkin pie, juicy turkey, and delicious cranberry sauce! As you can probably guess, not all Thanksgiving foods are going to be tooth-friendly. That doesn’t mean your children have to suffer through a bland, tasteless Thanksgiving meal though. Consider these tips as you plan a festive meal that will treat your child’s oral health kindly.

Include more options for crunchy fruits and vegetables.

Thanksgiving is the one time of year when it’s appropriate to have an endless variety of sides to go with your turkey. So, why not take advantage of the opportunity to give your child healthy options that will also benefit their teeth? Sweet potatoes, a Thanksgiving favorite, are full of healthy fibers that increase saliva production and remove bacteria on the teeth as you chew. The key is to avoid adding large amounts of brown sugar and marshmallows before handing your child his plate. Other good vegetables to include are broccoli, carrots and celery, all of which are high in fiber.

Rethink pumpkins.

While pumpkin pie is absolutely delicious, it’s also packed with sugars that will stick to your child’s teeth. Pumpkin, however, can be just as tooth-friendly as the crunchy vegetables mentioned above. Explore your recipe options and find creative ways to use pumpkin without making a sugary pie.

Skip the cranberry sauce but don’t forget the cranberries.

Traditional cranberry sauce from the can is sure to cause bacteria formation on your child’s teeth, but real cranberries can actually be good for them. Microbiologist Hyun “Michel” Koo discovered that cranberries disrupt bacteria from forming plaque and acid that cause tooth decay. But, that doesn’t mean you should allow your child to hoard the cranberries. The fruit still contains acidic content and should be consumed in conservative amounts.

Try not to linger around the dinner table.

Everyone loves to revisit the dinner table or fridge throughout the day to pick at the Thanksgiving leftovers. What they don’t realize is that the constant snacking disrupts your tooth enamel’s ability to re-harden. Each time your child “grazes” on leftovers, the more often his tooth enamel has to reset the clock. Try to limit your child from snacking after your Thanksgiving meal, and his teeth will thank you!

You may have heard complaints from your child regarding tooth pains after eating hot and cold foods, or even while brushing their teeth. Tooth sensitivity can be described as an unpleasant stinging or tingling sensation in the teeth, and there are many factors that could be the culprits of your child’s sensitive teeth.

1. Poor brushing habits

It’s important to establish proper brushing techniques from an early age, not only to prevent cavities but also to protect the gums and enamel. If your child brushes his/her teeth too hard, it could result in enamel and gum erosion, which makes their teeth more sensitive to hot and cold. To avoid this problem, teach your children how much pressure to apply as they brush their teeth with a soft toothbrush.

2. Cavities

If your child does not brush and floss his/her teeth often enough, then tooth decay begins to take effect, which will cause sensitivity and discomfort in your child’s teeth. To prevent this cause of tooth sensitivity, make sure your children brush their teeth at least twice a day for approximately two minutes.

3. Sinuses

Unfortunately, sinus infections can affect more than just the nose. If your child is prone to sinus problems, he/she may experience tooth sensitivity near the top of the mouth. This is due to the close proximity of the sinuses to the roof of the mouth. As sinus pressure builds, it can cause your child to feel pain as though the mouth is infected too. Your dentist should check to make sure this symptom isn’t an actual cavity or abscess.

4. Teeth Grinding

This is a severely bad habit that negatively affects your child’s dental health and is likely to cause tooth sensitivity. Excessive tooth grinding can cause hairline cracks in the teeth that cause mouth pain when your child bites down on something or chews food. Misaligned teeth can also contribute to these hairline cracks.

5. Fillings

More specifically, it is metal amalgam fillings that can cause unpleasant tooth sensitivity. This type of filling acts a shortcut that conducts heat faster than your child’s regular tooth enamel.  Since this type of filling is extremely sensitive to changes in temperature, it also causes teeth to expand and contract quickly, putting more pressure on the tooth nerve. This occurrence can also contribute to more hairline cracks in your child’s teeth.

6. Losing Baby Teeth

When your child begins losing more baby teeth and growing permanent ones, it won’t take much to make them feel sensitive and painful. The emergence of new teeth can be miserable on its own, but other factors such as hot and cold temperatures, food, and air can make painful contact as well.

If your child is experiencing tooth sensitivity, it is important to treat the affected teeth before the discomfort becomes too unbearable. This could lead to malnourishment if the child stops eating foods that cause them pain. Therefore, it’s important to discuss treatment options with your dentist to ensure that your child’s oral health is in pain-free condition!

Be sure to download our FREE downloadable checklist for your child's first dental visit and beyond! It's full of helpful information for you and your family.

Trick-or-treating can be a nightmare for both parents and dentists. What could be scarier than ghosts and goblins on Halloween? Sugary treats that plague adolescent teeth! While we always encourage our spirited patients to stay away from too much candy, we realize Halloween is a time of year when kids indulge in all kinds of sweets. Here are the top worst Halloween candies that should be avoided this season along with some healthier alternatives.

Taffy – You instantly recognize when your children are eating taffy based on their comical chewing behavior and length of time to finish swallowing before moving on to the next candy. That’s because sticky treats such as taffy and caramel attach themselves to the teeth and are very difficult to remove. Even increased amounts of saliva aren’t enough to wash away the sugary substances that stick to the grooves and crevices between the teeth, which increase the amount of acid formed by bacteria in the mouth. Try to avoid chewy candies like gummy bears, taffy, Tootsie Rolls, and caramel fillings.

Sour candies – These popular Halloween treats have a serious vendetta against your child’s tooth enamel! The amount of acid in sour candies will contribute to an imbalanced PH level in your child’s mouth, which allows the acid in the candy to break down tooth enamel faster.

Cookies/Cake – Not only do these baked treats come in bigger servings than your average candy, but they also contain extremely high amounts of sugar that will settle on your children’s teeth, putting them at risk of tooth decay. It’s probably not a safe idea to accept homemade goods from strangers anyway, but even the packaged goodies should be avoided.

Lollipops – Hard candies such as lollipops are somewhere in the middle when it comes to the amount of damage they cause to adolescent teeth. On one hand, they don’t stick to the teeth as badly as taffy candy. Additionally, lollipops can increase the amount of saliva in the mouth, which helps rinse away the bacteria that produces enamel-eroding acid. However, lollipops take longer to dissolve and therefore stay in your mouth longer, increasing the acidity on your child’s teeth as time goes on.

Tooth-Friendly Alternatives

Sugar-free gum – We highly recommend this as a Halloween treat this year. It contains a natural sweetener, xylitol, that protects against plaque-inducing bacteria. Sugar-free gum is also a good choice after your child eats other sugary candies, because it increases the amount of saliva in the mouth to rinse away bacteria.

Dark Chocolate – chocolate tends not to stick to the teeth as stubbornly as other sticky candies. Plus, the antioxidants in dark chocolate can provide additional health benefits that extend beyond oral health.

Be sure to monitor the amount of sugar your child consumes this Halloween, as moderation is key. Schedule your next appointment at Dentistry for Children and Adolescents to ensure that your children have happy, healthy teeth after all of that trick-or-treating!

For now, feel free to download our FREE eBook on beverages to watch out for and dental care. It will help educate you and your family on the perils of what may be hiding in your own home.