Almost every baby begins to find its milk teeth even before he turns one year old. A few years later - at the age of five to six years, the child begins a serious and responsible period when they are replaced by permanent ones. It is already known that children's milk teeth have roots, but the latter at some point begin to gradually dissolve.
Unfortunately, there are situations in which the removal of milk teeth in a child may occur long before they must fall out on their own.
Permanent change of milk teeth
The baby teeth of the little ones begin to change at about 5-6 years old, and this lasts for up to twelve years. After the roots of the deciduous teeth dissolve, the teeth become loose and fall out. A permanent tooth, which begins to grow, gradually pushes the milk out of the hole.
In most cases, the baby’s teeth will change in the same order in which they appeared at the very beginning. It happens that this process is a little delayed, but this cannot be considered a pathology. But if a year has passed and the new tooth did not grow in the vacated place, then you should take the baby to the dentist.
We foresee
Thanks to milk teeth, the child has a normal, proper development of the facial skeleton and chewing muscles. In addition, thanks to these first teeth, a place is saved so that subsequently, without any anomalies, the constants erupt. Thanks to the milk teeth, the location in the oral cavity of the constants is determined and the balance of space is maintained.
That is why parents need to try to save the baby teeth of the little one until they start to fall out on their own. This is not particularly difficult, because it’s enough just to carefully monitor the health of the baby’s mouth, provide good nutrition and constant hygiene of the child’s teeth.
But it also happens that it is necessary to apply the removal of milk teeth in a child.
Why is it necessary to delete? Indications required
The ideal option is considered in which each milk tooth falls out on its own. This does not always happen and not with all babies. Sometimes the doctor prescribes such a procedure - removal of milk teeth in children. Indications for it can be very different:
- the tooth was injured (crack, chip, fracture);
- the tooth is already loose, but still does not fall out, the baby feels discomfort;
- the tooth is so damaged by caries that restoration is impossible;
- the tooth should fall out according to all the due dates, and according to the picture, the root has already resolved;
- a permanent little tooth is already cutting out a little, and milk is still not falling out ...
Features of the removal of milk teeth
A specialist should remove milk baby teeth completely differently than permanent ones. The reason is simple: in babies the jaw grows, the bite is mixed and there are rudiments of molars. This is a simple manipulation, but special care is needed: the baby has very thin walls of the alveoli, and the discrepancy of the roots is pronounced.
If the doctor performing the extraction of milk teeth in the child is inaccurate and inattentive, then his actions may well provoke the formation of a bone scar in the tooth or even atrophy of the alveolar edge. That is why it is necessary to choose a child specialist with special close attention, because the bite, the comfort of chewing the child in the future will depend on his work in the first years of the baby's life.
Parents should be quite demanding on the doctor when he will remove the deciduous teeth in children. The consequences can be very different. If these changes (which were mentioned in the previous paragraph) happen, then the permanent teeth in babies will erupt with difficulty. If the growth zones of new teeth are injured, the normal growth of the jaws will be impaired, and due to the fact that the load distribution will be uneven, chewing activity will gradually decrease.
Are there any nerves in the baby’s milk teeth?
So, we figured out that the removal of milk teeth in a child is a procedure necessary only under certain conditions. Dentists make this decision when it’s already impossible to save a tooth. But such a radical decision is not always required. There is another option in which the milk tooth remains in place.
Near the root of the baby’s tooth is a bundle of nerve endings - the pulp, which is usually called the dental nerve. It is she who is responsible for how the tooth reacts to an external stimulus. After removal of the nerve, the mineralization of the tooth and its blood supply cease, as a result of which it gradually begins to be exposed to external factors.
Removal of a nerve in a baby’s tooth in a child is done if the baby develops pulpitis or the area affected by caries is too large and the tooth is quite badly damaged.
Tooth silvering
Since the caries process is very difficult to stop , for babies (so as not to scare them and discourage visits to the dental office in the future), doctors use the silvering procedure. In this case, a special composition is used, which includes fluorine and a solution of silver nitrate. With this solution, the doctor processes the damaged enamel. The result of the procedure is the formation of a protective film, due to which the processes that destroy the tooth lasting for some time are suspended.
If the parents are faced with a dilemma: to remove the nerve in the milk tooth or to silver, experts, most likely, will advise the second option. Microcrystals formed during this procedure provide protection that keeps bacteria out of the baby’s tooth.
This method was invented especially for the smallest patients who still cannot withstand drilling with a drill, and this method does not require any particular perseverance. On the other hand, this is a safe method, because silver is a non-toxic and therefore non-hazardous material.
The disadvantages of this procedure include a change in the color of the tooth enamel from white to black (after several treatments) and the fact that it is carried out only in the initial stages of caries.