As a proud family dentist practice, Krengel Dental is committed to caring for your whole family, including babies and children who happen to be some of our favorite patients to treat. Now it may seem easy to dismiss the dentist until your baby?s permanent set of teeth is grown in, however this is NOT the case. The care of baby teeth absolutely matters and we recommend bringing in your baby around the time you notice teeth starting to emerge and definitely by the time they are a year old. So why treat your newborns temporary teeth? Here are three reasons why dental hygiene for children is incredibly important.

1, Chewing, eating and digesting

While it may seem obvious, your baby?s advancing diet is dependent on their teeth and dental hygiene. In order for a baby to chew, eat and digest more complex foods in order to get all of their nutritional needs met, it is important that your child?s teeth are clean, healthy, cavity free and pain-free. Making sure your baby?s teeth are healthy and happy will make a big difference in what your baby is willing or able to eat.

2. Bone structure

These baby teeth might be temporary, but that doesn?t mean they don?t have a permanent influence! Similar to a house blueprint, your child?s baby teeth reserve the space for their adult/permanent set of teeth . If the baby teeth are not healthy and strong, the development and alignment of the permanent teeth will be affected and positioning of the teeth and jaw muscle function can become impaired.

3. Speech & Language

Weak or missing teeth influence your baby?s ability to form and speak words properly. Healthy teeth is an important factor in speech and future speech problems or difficulty speaking can be avoided by caring for your baby?s teeth early on.

Is it time to bring your baby in? Have any questions about how to take care of your child?s first teeth as they begin to grow? As always, your friendly Krengel Dental team is here. Give us a call now (952-888-1311).