Our sweetest and dearest patients are children. We are especially proud of wonderful relationships we build with them and confidence they have in us.

The most honest smile you can get is that of a child.

A first milk tooth appears when a child is around 6 months old and it needs to be looked after. At first, it is enough to be wiped with dry gauze after meals. It would be ideal that parents refrain from giving their baby sweet drinks (fruit juices and sweetened milk) or to immerse pacifier in honey or sugar. When the baby is a year old, it should have a toothbrush of appropriate dimensions with which, at first, only brushes teeth without toothpaste. As soon as the child has learnt to spit, toothpaste is introduced as a regular part of oral hygiene routine. Make sure that kids use their toothpaste, designed for their age, and never let them brush their teeth with a toothpaste used by their parents. They are extremely aggressive for milk teeth and have a high fluoride concentration, higher than it is permitted for children.

By the time the child is two and a half years old, all milk teeth should have appeared.

Milk teeth are quite different to the permanent ones. They are smaller, whiter, with a more voluminous nerve and a very thin part in the neck region of the tooth (the part nearest to the gums). By constant consumption of sweets, milk teeth begin to deteriorate precisely around the tooth's neck and create the so-called circular caries, typical for milk teeth. It got the name by encircling the entire tooth. The teeth become dark, black and break, leaving black roots in the mouth.

There are twenty milk teeth, ten in each jaw.

In the sixth year, we expect the eruption of the first permanent teeth – six-year molars. As soon as they appear, we recommend the fissure sealant procedure, a simple method of protecting teeth from decay.

From the age of seven, the change of dentition begins slowly. First the lower and the upper incisors, then all the other teeth, one by one. All will be replaced between thirteen and fourteen years of age.

At the age of fourteen, we expect the eruption of the second molar. The only tooth which will appear in the adult period is the third molar or the wisdom tooth and its eruption is expected after eighteen years of age.

It would be ideal for a child to come for the first time to the dental office and not experience any pain, in order to keep that contact in a good memory. On the first visit, we introduce them to our practice, machines and instruments that we present as toys and each of them has a suitable synonym for kids to understand.

We teach them how to properly brush their teeth, then remove soft deposits with a toothbrush and a toothpaste of pleasant taste. When the first contact passes without any inconvenience, the child co-operates and becomes a good patient who is happy to come to our office. In the event of any problems with teeth requiring dental intervention, the little ones co-operate quicker and much easier.

If the cause of the child’s first contact with us is pain, we always leave more time for them in order to gain attention and confidence of our small patients and perform the needed intervention.

• Removing soft deposits and teaching about the oral hygiene

• Fissure sealing

• Teeth fluoridation

• Restorations and extractions of milk teeth

FISSURE SEALING

Fissure sealing is a preventive method used on lateral teeth of permanent dentition to prevent caries formation. It is recommended for the fissure sealing procedure to be performed in the first 6 months after tooth eruption. To be able to perform this procedure, the tooth must be perfectly healthy and clean, without any changes. Permanent lateral teeth have distinct morphological features made up of cusps, ridges, pits and fissures. Fissures and pits can be quite deep and children do not brush them adequately and very quickly teeth get damaged. By sealing the fissures with fissure sealants, the surface of the tooth becomes smooth and in this way, it is protected from decay.

The fissure sealing procedure does not require the use of a drill, it is completely painless and children easily accept it. A sealant is a plastic material applied to the chewing surfaces of the back teeth and polymerized using UV lamps. It is a very fast method and in one visit, it's possible to treat all four six-year molars.

TEETH FLUORIDATION

Teeth fluoridation is a prophylactic, non-invasive, simple, fast and easy method performed to prevent caries and preserve child’s oral health. A high concentration fluorine preparations are used. It is not recommended for children under 6 years of age. Fluorine affects the teeth, changing their structure. They become more resistant to the effects of factors leading to the tooth decay.

• In children with low caries risk: children with healthy teeth, well-trained in maintaining oral hygiene, with a small number of teeth with fillings – it is enough to do the fluoridation once a year.

• In children with high caries risk: children with high caries frequency, having many carious or teeth with fillings are recommended to the fluoridation 2-4 times a year with mandatory prior restoration of the entire oral cavity.

Fluoridation procedure consists of three identical sessions, or three visits to the dentist’s every two days (e.g. Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Before intervention, it is necessary to remove tooth plaque. After that, a gel with high fluorine concentration is applied to the fluoride tray of the appropriate size. The gel is kept on the teeth for 4 minutes, and after completion, the child spits it out without rinsing with water. No food or drink should be consumed for half an hour.

RESTORATIONS AND EXTRACTIONS OF MILK TEETH

Milk teeth require the same level of oral hygiene as permanent ones. Although they stay in the oral cavity temporarily, their significance is multiple. Children use them for chewing until eruption of permanent teeth, and they also keep a space for permanent teeth until the change of dentition. If a milk tooth decays it must be treated; it cannot be left rotten with the excuse of it falling out eventually. The premature extraction of milk tooth leads to loss of space for permanent teeth and later, such child is a candidate for some of the orthodontic prostheses.

All restorations of milk teeth are performed under local anaesthesia. To make the needle stick as painless as possible, we first apply anaesthetic paste to the place of the sting, and then apply the anesthetic using very thin needles (0.3mm diameter). We remove all caries, and the resulting dental defect is restored with filling.

When the time of teeth changing comes, you can try to remove your child’s loose tooth, or you can bring it to us to help you. Also, we can extract destroyed teeth before its time for comes, but whose stay in the oral cavity puts development of permanent teeth at risk due to the present infection. Extractions are also performed under local anaesthesia.