Tooth Talk: How Childhood Dentistry Affects Adults

Visiting the dentist's office is a rite of passage for children. Some adults have better memories of their early dentistry experiences than others. However, neglected or unattractive dental work in childhood can leave adults needing to catch up or upgrade. Adults have many options today to avoid costly fixes, and may even cash in on childhood dentistry.

Pediatric Dentistry Neglect

A sound pediatric dentistry plan for children, from teething stage up to age 7, is the foundation for beautiful teeth later in life. For infants, this plan involves gum care and teething rings, so infants will not scratch at or harm their gums. Once teeth emerge, this plan includes regular annual checkups, professional cleanings and reminders to brush. Families can reinforce their dentist's efforts at home with fluoride toothpastes, low-sugar products, Vitamin D milk and high calcium sources in their diets.

Children have one chance to get strong teeth right. Once their permanent set grows in, they must live with the pain and complications of dentistry neglect until they can correct them. When people lose or chip teeth in childhood, or crowded and crooked teeth go without braces, only costly adult dental work can repair them.

Tooth Decay

Tooth decay, also called dental caries or cavities, is the chronic disease reported most often for children from ages 6 to 11 and adolescents from ages 12 to 19. Fluoridated water mandates and the rise in low-sugar products have helped curb childhood tooth decay. Children with especially sugary, low-calcium diets develop more cavities and require more fillings. When children never receive dental care, teeth rot and may start falling out by early adulthood.

Fillings for children are commonly made of cost-effective, but noticeable, silver. Gold is a less noticeable and stronger, but more expensive, option. In either case, this childhood dental misfortune can leave an adult with a mouthful of fillings and crowns later.

Fillings

Adults today have more attractive filling and crown options in composite resin fillings, which can be tooth-colored. Dentists are able to remove unsightly fillings and crowns on frontal and posterior teeth to replace them with more aesthetically-pleasing options.

The crown-buying industry is going strong and gives adults a way to recycle the tooth gold they no longer need. Dentists can recycle old gold fillings or scrap metal left from new gold filling procedures, or sell your dental gold if you don’t claim it. Adults can request to receive their fillings, for cash from a reputable crown-buying company.

Discoloration

If yellowing teeth began early from lack of brushing and neglected dental care, a professional is required to whiten adult teeth. Even if they maintain good teeth habits from childhood, adults have little control over tooth whiteness. It fades naturally with time. Regular consumption of coffee, teas, wine and some foods speed up discoloration.

However, the dentist office is no longer the only place to whiten teeth. Gentle but effective whitening toothpastes, mouthwashes and strips are available in today's market. These can be used alone or in conjunction with professional teeth whitening.

Wisdom Teeth

Wisdom teeth are the final tooth stage of after baby teeth and permanent teeth. These wisdom teeth arrive by the early twenties, and may even remain unnoticeable for years. However, misaligned wisdom teeth become painful when they grate on nearby teeth and nerves. A wisdom tooth buried under the gums or within the jawbone is impacted. Infections often result when its partial emergence exposes openings for bacteria through the soft tissue in the mouth.

Wisdom teeth extraction is one of the most common adult oral surgery procedures. Depending on the degree of crowding, misalignment and infection, some or all teeth may need to be removed over time or at once. The procedure requires anesthesia, at-home pain medication and a recovery period.

Childhood dentistry is no method to set perfect teeth for life. It is only the start to a lifelong journey of tooth care. Adults can evaluate how childhood dentistry affected their teeth today, and work with a dentist to build upon or upgrade these early efforts.