Baby teeth

The one thing everyone knows about baby teeth is that they will fall out sooner or later. This can lead many people to be apathetic towards them. They wonder, “Why even take my kid to the dentist?” or “Why make them take care of their baby teeth at all?”

 

Yes, baby teeth are going to fall out eventually, but that does not meant that you (or your kid) should be apathetic towards them. Here are a few of the reasons that Spokane Dental has found that taking care of your kid’s baby teeth should be a top priority.

Taking Care of Your Kid’s Baby Teeth Builds Good Dental Habits

The most obvious trend Spokane Dental has seen in kids is that if they are taught to take care of their baby teeth at a young age, then they will take care of their adult teeth when they come of age. This is part psychology and part physiology, as it is not just a matter of how the kid spends their time.

 

While the teeth themselves fall out, the nerves that the teeth are attached to stay right where they originally grew. What this means is that any sensations that the baby teeth become accustomed to, the adult teeth will also be accustomed to.

 

If the kid is used to the feeling of their teeth feeling clean, then that feeling will stick around even as they lose those teeth and grow in new adult teeth.

Taking Care of Your Kid’s Baby Teeth Helps Their Jawline

This is something that Spokane Dental has found that few people know about even in their own adult teeth, and even fewer people know in relation to baby teeth as well: The stronger your teeth, the stronger your jaw.

 

This is because the shape of the jaw is heavily impacted by the strength of the teeth. It is all bone, after all, and when the body is able to make stronger materials to construct its teeth out of, the jaw benefits from this.

 

Not only this, but the muscles around the face impact the shape of the jaw as well. The stronger those muscles, the more bone matter they can hold up.

 

This is one of the many processes in the human body that is totally automated: The muscles of the jaw “know” they can hold up more jawbone, so they make more jawbone. If they “think” that they cannot hold up as much jawbone, the cells that make up the jawbone will not develop or divide to keep from straining the muscles.

Taking Care of Your Kid’s Baby Teeth Helps Their Speech

The development of speech always feels like a strictly social thing. Humans imagine that things like stutters and stammers come from nerves and disabilities. But someone with a misshapen mouth will have trouble forming words no matter how confident they are.

 

For this reason, Spokane Dental observed how children talk between kids who had better baby teeth and those who did not. There is always more stumbling over their words among kids with worse teeth. The explanation for this is simply that these children’s mouths are more frequently changing, forcing the kids to adapt.

 

The issue is, learning the skill of speech relies heavily on the speaker’s mouth being in a constant state. A mouth that changes shape every two weeks (as might happen with a kid whose teeth are always shifting) will make learning speech much more difficult.

 

Like with cleaning the teeth, this feeling of discomfort comes down to the nerves. It starts with the nerves having to deal with the sensation of being disoriented by the shifting teeth and sensations in the mouth. Eventually, the nerves will “tune out” these sensations, resulting in affected speech.

 

Even once new, adult teeth come in however, the nerves will stay the same and they will have very little reason to “tune in” to those signals again. The result is that the speech will continue to be affected until conscious effort is made to change it.

Taking Care of your Kid’s Baby Teeth Forms Better Eating Habits

When you child chews, they will likely be applying as much force as they can to each individual bite. This is just human nature. It is something that humans have been doing since they were eating raw mammoth and sabretooth tigers in the ice age. The issue is that it can be bad for teeth to apply this much force.

 

It is much worse for weak teeth, but at the same time it is also much more necessary for weak teeth. The weaker the teeth, the harder the child must chew to get the desired effect. That means that the weakest teeth will do the most damage to themselves when chewing.

 

The end result of this vicious cycle is that the child chews very hard, usually damaging their teeth in the process. It also means that they will be incentivized to chew much less. The reduced chewing will mean they eat their food in bigger bites, which makes it harder to digest, as well as making the jaw weaker.

 

Bad eating habits like this can affect the child’s whole body, so it is important to keep track of how easily your child is eating their food.

Conclusion

Spokane Dental has found that there are lots of reasons to take care of your kid’s baby teeth. From personal health and hygiene to the early ability to speak properly. None of these have to happen, and none of them stay with the child if you are willing to work with the child to stop them.

 

Keeping your child’s baby teeth clean and healthy is a key factor in keeping the child healthy. So, make sure they brush every day, preferably twice a day if you can convince them. Get kid’s strength mouthwash and floss if you really want to round out their cleaning supplies.

 

And remember: There is never such thing as too clean when it comes to oral hygiene.