Hello doctor: Tooth decay due to bottle-feeding

Date: 31/05/2018 / Author: Mr Tuấn

Many parents do not understand why their children from 1-3 years of age are more likely to have multiple tooth decay in the front teeth of both jaws, the cause of this is because the baby has had bottle feeding for a long time with poor oral hygiene.

8 basic principles in the care of children's teeth

Signs are not good on baby teeth

Finding the cause

Tooth decay can occur in children with the bottle-feeding habit or have sugary liquids such as sugary milk, fruit juices, and soft drinks in their mouth when sleeping. Snaking before bed will make the sugar ferment into acid, attacking and damage the enamel, after a long time causes tooth decay, especially the baby incisors.

Tooth decay can occurs in children with bottle-feeding habits

Maintain your baby's oral hygiene by brushing

At night, children usually sleep for about 8-10 hours, at this time only a little amount of saliva is secreted, so the sugar from the milk or sweet substances will settle onto the teeth, destroying enamel resulting in tooth decay.

In the oral environment, there are always existing bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans that will use sugars found in the food left in the mouth, then fermented them into acid, destroying the enamel and cause tooth decay.

How does it affect teeth?

If the child has a habit of bottle feeding for a long time but does not thoroughly maintain oral hygiene, the teeth will lose minerals or cavities appear on the teeth without intervention or treatment. As a result, the baby's front teeth often have large cavities or large white spots, which then turn black brown or completely destroy the enamel and form cavities.

Children with bottle-feeding habits without thorough oral hygiene will make the teeth lose mineral and form cavities

The enamel and dentin of a baby tooth are very thin, long-term tooth decay, if not treated and prevent early will cause pain and difficulty in eating, learning and affect cosmetic, etc. More severe cases can cause infections that require tooth extraction, sometimes affecting the underlying permanent tooth and general health, sometimes it can cause blood poisoning.

If you have to prematurely extract baby teeth, the permanent teeth that erupt later will deviate which affect chewing, pronunciation, and cosmetics.

How do you prevent it?

The American Dental Association has issued a number of guidelines for preventing tooth decay due to bottle-feeding:

- Do not let your child go to sleep holding a milk bottle, juice or soft drink in the mouth. If the baby has a habit of sleeping with a bottle, let your baby drink water instead and take the bottle away when the baby slept.

- Train your child to drink milk at the main meal, not while running around playing or hold the milk bottle when sleeping.

- When the baby is 1 year old, it is recommended that children drink milk from the glass as soon as possible because they will not hold milk in the mouth, so the sugar in milk will not stick to the teeth.

- Take care of your baby's oral hygiene by brushing teeth, drink water after milk or use gauze to clean your baby's teeth after each meal.

- If the baby can only sleep with a bottle, especially at night, let your child drink clean water, avoid sugary drinks.

- Practice regular dental checkups every 6 months or once per year, to detect cavities and be instructed on proper dental care.

DR.CK II. Nguyen Duc Hue

NHAN TAM DENTAL CLINIC

Address: 801-809, 3/2 Street, Ward 7, District 10, HCMC

Hotline: 1900 56 5678

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