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Some lucky babies wake one morning displaying a brand new tooth to the complete surprise of their unsuspecting parents! But your happy baby is irritable and drooling. Or your hearty eater doesn’t feel like finishing her food. Perhaps she finds it hard to go to sleep when she’s usually nodded off before you finish the first lullaby. A small number of children suffer little or no discomfort teething, but for the majority of babies who do, here are some helpful ways to ease their teething pain.

• Massage--Rubbing your baby’s gums with a clean finger or piece of gauze—gentle pressure is all you need. And do be careful of your fingers once those teeth start coming in!
• Chewing—there are many colorful and easy to grasp teething toys available, including BPA-free models.
• Cool Relief—Cool a solid teether in the refrigerator to help ease discomfort. Placing a teething ring in the freezer is not recommended, as extreme cold can be damaging to little mouths and gums.
• Comfort Food—If your baby is eating solid foods, try cold applesauce or other purees.
• Skin Care—Drooling is often part of the teething process, but try to keep your child’s face free from rash and chaffing by wiping with a clean cloth when necessary.

And while you are trying to keep your baby comfortable, also be sure to keep her safe!

• Know what your baby is putting into her mouth. All teething items should be non-toxic and free of harmful chemicals. Teethers filled with fluids may break or leak, so a solid toy is best.
• Make teething items size-appropriate. Avoid anything small or breakable that might present a choking hazard.
• Over-the-counter gels and liquids containing benzocaine, meant to reduce pain in the gums and mouth, may on rare occasion lead to serious health conditions in small children. Always check with Dr. Gregory Weaver or your pediatrician before buying an over-the-counter teething medication for your baby.

For many babies, teething can be a long and sometimes difficult process. If there is anything we can do to help you and your baby in this journey, please give our Raleigh, NC office a call.

What a milestone! The transition from bottle to sippy cup is one of baby’s first steps toward toddler independence. And like all first journeys, some helpful guideposts come in handy. That’s why Dr. Gregory Weaver and our team have several recommendations to help you navigate this transition, making sure your baby’s dental health is protected along the way.

Choosing a Sippy Cup

Sippy cups are often a parent’s first choice for this big step in baby’s development. While sippy cups offer a variety of child-safe materials, lively colors, and comfortable handle options, the feature of interest from a dental perspective is lid design.

Sippy cups curb spills because their lids don’t allow liquids to flow out freely, ensuring that drinks make it into baby’s mouth instead of onto furniture or floor. Cup lids might incorporate:

• Built-in straws
• A drinking edge around the rim of the cup which seals when your child isn’t drinking
• Soft spouts
• Hard spouts
• Spouts with valves to prevent liquids from leaking out. (Spouts with valves work like a nipple, which means baby is sucking instead of sipping.)

Which design is best? For short periods, any of these designs can work for you. Over long periods, spouted cups could have the same effects as prolonged thumb-sucking and pacifier use, potentially affecting a child’s tongue positioning, tooth alignment, bite, and speech development. Your dentist will be able to suggest which cups are best for your child’s dental health both short and long term.

What to Put in a Sippy Cup

Once your baby has begun drinking from a cup, it should only hold tooth-friendly drinks.

• Pediatricians generally recommend breast milk and/or formula until your child is 12 months old. You can switch to regular milk (or a healthy milk alternative) once your child is a year old with your doctor’s okay.
• Water can be introduced when your pediatrician thinks your child is ready, usually around the age of six months.
• Because even natural fruit juices have lots of sugar, dentists and pediatricians suggest giving your baby small amounts only—or feed your child fruit instead!
• Skip the sugared drinks, sports drinks, caffeinated drinks, and sodas. They aren’t healthy for little bodies or little teeth.

Help Prevent Tooth Decay

Just like adults, babies can suffer tooth decay, too—and for the same reasons. The bacteria in plaque use the sugars found in our diets to create acids, and acids erode tooth enamel.

When a toddler totes a sippy cup around all day, even filled with healthy drinks, those baby teeth are constantly exposed to the natural sugars found in breast milk, formula, and, for older children, milk. Drinks with more or added sugars, such as juices or sweetened drinks, cause more damage to tooth enamel. Use a sippy cup wisely:

• Offer the cup with meals and snacks, when increased saliva production can help wash away sugars and neutralize the acids which cause cavities.
• Offer water between meals.
• Don’t let your baby take a sippy cup to bed. Some spill-proof cups are designed to be sucked like bottles, and, like bottles, sugary liquids can pool in babies’ mouths as they sleep.
• Get into a tooth-cleaning routine as soon as your child’s teeth start to arrive.

And, while we’re talking about healthy teeth, please don’t let your child toddle around with a sippy cup. A fall while drinking can injure a baby’s mouth and teeth.

Partner with Your Child’s Dentist

The journey from baby to toddler can seem overwhelming sometimes for both you and your child, but you have expert help available! It's a good idea to make a first dental appointment at our Raleigh, NC office sometime between the appearance of the first baby tooth and your child’s first birthday. This initial visit is an opportunity for Dr. Gregory Weaver to:

• Check your child’s overall dental health and development.
• Look for signs of early decay.
• Talk about proactive dental care, including how and when to clean your child’s teeth.
• Answer questions about how you can support your child’s dental health, including the advantages and disadvantages of sippy cups.

Used properly, sippy cups can be a helpful transition on your child’s journey from bottle to cup, and from baby-who-relies-on-you-for-everything to take-charge-toddler. Dr. Gregory Weaver and our team are an ideal guide as you and your child chart this path together.

October’s here! A month when we celebrate the beauty of fall, the taste of pumpkin spice, the fun of Halloween in Raleigh, NC, and the healthy smiles which orthodontic treatment makes possible!

Because October is Orthodontic Health Month, and it’s a great time to talk about how your orthodontist helps you create not just a more beautiful smile, but a healthier one. 

Straight, evenly spaced teeth are the visible benefit of treatment, but there are many health benefits which might not be quite as noticeable. Orthodontic treatment can:

• Help You Prevent Cavities and Gum Disease 

When teeth are crowded or crooked, it’s hard for your toothbrush and floss to reach all of the plaque which builds up on and between your teeth. The bacteria in plaque create acids which start to dissolve tooth enamel. And a very small hole in the enamel surface can grow until it becomes a cavity. 

Plaque and bacteria also irritate the gums. When you can’t remove plaque completely, your gums are at risk for gingivitis. This early stage of gum disease causes redness, tenderness, swelling, and bleeding. Left untreated, gingivitis can develop into more serious gum disease. 

And, over time, plaque hardens and becomes tartar, which needs to be removed professionally at Weaver Dentistry.

When your teeth are straight and evenly spaced, brushing and flossing are both easier and more effective, helping you keep your teeth and gums healthy and plaque-free.

• Create a Better Bite

For a healthy bite, your teeth and jaws need to align correctly. The top teeth should slightly overlap the lower teeth, and the ridges of your upper molars should fit smoothly with the grooves of your lower molars. 

Malocclusions, or bad bites, can come in many forms, including overbites, underbites, open bites, cross bites, and overjets. A bad bite is bad for your dental health. Malocclusions can cause tooth grinding, worn enamel, and even cracked teeth. 

And bad bites don’t just affect your teeth. When your bite doesn’t align properly, you might suffer from problems such as headaches, jaw pain, indigestion, and sleep apnea. 

Orthodontic treatment creates a healthy, symmetrical, and pain-free bite.

• Improve Your Self-Confidence

We can’t forget the invisible health benefits of orthodontic treatment! Your smile is a gift which you share with the world. But if you’re hesitating to smile because of self-consciousness about your teeth or bite, orthodontic treatment can make a world of difference.

Your orthodontist can help you achieve straighter teeth, a bite which fits together properly, and, when malocclusions affect jaw symmetry, a more balanced facial profile. If you’re concerned about the appearance of your smile, talk to Dr. Gregory Weaver about an orthodontic consultation. Today’s technology can even let you see what your future smile will look like!

Modern orthodontic treatment is more effective and takes less time to complete than ever before. And orthodontics offers patients of all ages more benefits than ever before: 

• New types of braces are less noticeable and more comfortable than older styles. Smaller brackets, brackets which blend with tooth enamel, clear aligners, and lingual braces give you a variety of options to customize your treatment.
• Early orthodontic treatment can guide jaw growth in younger children. 
• Appliances can help with jaw alignment in older children, or, for more serious malocclusions, an orthodontist can coordinate treatment with an oral surgeon.
• Treatment isn’t limited to the teen years. Adults make up a large and growing number of orthodontic patients. 

If you’ve been considering orthodontic treatment, October—or any month!—is a great time to schedule a visit with an orthodontist. An orthodontic evaluation will let you know just what your orthodontist can do to help you create a beautiful and healthy smile.

Outside activities? You slather your kids with sunscreen. Biking? You don’t let your child leave the house without a helmet. Youth sports? You provide mouthguards and padding and headgear and all the other tools designed to keep your child safe. Protecting your child is a fundamental part of parenthood, and you take your job seriously.

Protecting your child’s dental health is fundamental, too! Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease in children, and children’s premolars and molars are far more vulnerable to decay than any of their other teeth. You can help protect your child’s molars and premolars with a simple and effective treatment—dental sealants.

• How Do Sealants Work?

The bacteria in plaque use food particles to create acids. These acids erode the minerals in tooth enamel, creating weak spots that become cavities over time. Molars and premolars are especially vulnerable to cavities because of their uneven chewing surfaces. The dips and grooves on top of the teeth—technically known as “pits and fissures”—collect food particles and bacteria, and can be difficult for children to clean completely when brushing. That’s why cavities are so common in newly erupted molars.

Dental sealants protect your child’s molars and premolars by creating a barrier that covers and smooths out the chewing surface of the tooth, preventing bacteria and food particles from getting stuck inside those uneven pits and fissures.

• What Kind of Sealants Are Available?

The two most common dental sealants are composite resin coatings and glass ionomer sealants.

With resin sealants, after each tooth is cleaned and dried, an etching solution will be brushed onto the top surface of the molar. This etching slightly roughens the surface so that the sealant will stick to the tooth more effectively. A thin coat of the sealant is then painted on and hardened under a special curing light.

Glass ionomer sealants use a flexible paste that bonds to the tooth and hardens within minutes. While they generally don’t last as long as resin sealants, they are designed to absorb and release fluoride for extra cavity-fighting protection.

• Do Sealants Work?

They certainly do! According to the Centers for Disease Control, sealants can prevent 80% of the cavities in molars and premolars, which is where 90% of children’s cavities appear. Dental sealants can last from three to five years, or even longer. Dr. Gregory Weaver will check the condition of any sealants at each dental exam, and let you know if it’s time for a reapplication.

• When’s the Best Time to Get Sealants?

Tooth enamel gets harder as we get older, so children’s newly erupted teeth are more at risk for cavities. First adult molars usually arrive when a child is six to seven years old, and second adult molars come in around the age of 12. The first and second premolars can erupt between the ages of ten to 12. As soon as the first permanent molars begin to erupt, it’s a good time to talk to Dr. Gregory Weaver about the best time to apply sealants.

And what about baby teeth? Even though baby teeth are meant to be replaced, they shouldn’t be lost to tooth decay before they are ready to fall out. Primary teeth help young children learn to speak and eat properly and hold the place for adult teeth so these permanent teeth come in where they should. Baby teeth have thinner enamel, and so cavities can progress more quickly. Dr. Gregory Weaver can let you know if sealant protection for your child’s baby molars is indicated.

Applying sealants at our Raleigh, NC office is a safe, simple, cost-effective, and painless process. Dental sealants are one more tool you can use to make protecting your child’s dental health a little easier and a lot more effective. That gets a well-deserved parents’ seal of approval!