Food and mouth bacteria make your pearly whites vulnerable to enamel erosion the moment they emerge. Although they are protected by the most potent substance in your body, the enamel, they need an additional protective barrier to remain intact.
Greenwood pediatric dentistry recommends fluoride treatments for children to keep their teeth healthy and give them the extra boost needed. People generally associate fluoride treatments exclusively with children. However, fluoride is essential for teeth irrespective of whether they are children’s teeth or adults.
Overlooking the need to use fluoride treatment is not beneficial because it has unique perks you should know about. Here are the five benefits of fluoride treatments that help strengthen tooth enamel and prevent unnecessary mouth complications.
As you consume acidic foods and beverages, your mouth bacteria release acids to cause enamel erosion. Besides breaking down the tooth enamel, the acids also destroy the tooth structure by harming the minerals on the tooth surface.
Your teeth need minerals like phosphorus and calcium for growth and health. Therefore, mineral loss has dire consequences when the acids weaken your teeth. When children receive fluoride treatments from the kid’s dentist near you, the therapy helps remineralize their teeth by restoring minerals and reversing the damage from acids. The health and strength of your teeth benefit from the remineralization process.
If children have cavities on their teeth, fluoride treatment helps reverse the progress of holes because dentists provide silver diamine fluoride that helps prevent tooth decay. In addition, the fluoride treatment helps with the remineralization of the missing minerals to encourage the enamel’s resistance to the degrading effects of the acids.
Tooth enamel protection is the best-known benefit of fluoride treatments. As mentioned earlier, the acids cause enamel erosion making drinking or eating hot and cold foods challenging. Therefore, it helps if children are not given acidic drinks like lemon juice, apple juice, and orange juice. However, brushing teeth with fluoride toothpaste helps make them robust to ensure the acids do not erode teeth. In addition, in-office fluoride varnish applied by Dr. Angela Schweiger provides fantastic benefits to their teeth.
Everyone knows harmful and harmless mouth bacteria exist. However, when children consume sugary and starchy foods, they also provide the fuel the bacteria need to produce acids and break the enamel. The process adversely affects the teeth and leads to the formation of cavities. However, when your child receives in-office fluoride treatments and brushes with fluoride toothpaste, they fortify their teeth to prevent the occurrence of tooth decay.
Fluoride is a fundamental mineral occurring naturally, making it a natural preventative. In reality, the CDC and the ADA added trace amounts of fluoride to community drinking water seven decades ago to reduce the prevalence of tooth decay. However, the levels are low, and dentists recommend safer options to help avoid dental cavities. Being on the better side of caution is always right. Therefore using fluoride treatments provided by dentists is essential to protect your teeth. As long as you use the recommended doses, you can rest assured fluoride will not harm your teeth because it is a naturally occurring mineral.
Wouldn’t you want to save money over the long term? Dental procedures, whether minor or significant not affordable and can cost an arm and a leg, especially if you think fluoride treatment cost is unaffordable. Fluoride treatments from dentists are immensely cheap, and the dentist completes the treatment in minutes allowing children to proceed with regular activities soon after receiving fluoride therapy.
You might confront a challenge if your child uses too much fluoride when brushing their teeth or drinking fluoridated water because it can result in fluorosis leaving white or brown spots on their teeth, raising concerns in your mind. However, the spots are cosmetic and are comfortably eliminated by dentists providing dental fluorosis treatment. Therefore even if children develop fluorosis, it is not a cause for concern. However, ignoring fluoride treatments by fearing its costs is undoubtedly a concern because it makes you vulnerable to considerable expenditure later if your child needs treatment for dental cavities with fillings, root canals, extractions, and space maintainers. The cumulative costs of these treatments are considerably higher than the price of fluoride treatments from the children’s dentist near you.
If you think children don’t need fluoride treatments to protect their teeth, we suggest you consult Kids First Dental for advice. The practice will likely surprise you by informing you about the five excellent benefits of this treatment and how it helps save considerable money later to encourage you to give children this superb treatment.